4 June 2021 – Damp conditions early gave way to a beautiful evening for football on Friday as the Junior B Championship opener pit Kerry Boston GFC against newcomers Trinity Milton.
The scoring opened early, with forward Declan O’Sullivan slashing through the defense before beating the keeper with a tidy finish to put Kerry on the board with a goal. The green and gold pressed the advantage early, keeping the ball in Trinity’s half and capitalizing with some well struck points by half forwards Oisin McCormick and Tommy Farrell.
Trinity soon settled down and scoring was hard to come by for the next few minutes, with Trinity pushing forward to create chances of their own, throwing a couple over the bar and missing a few more by mere inches. Perhaps Trinity’s best chance of the half came as Kerry struggled to clear the ball out of the box, and Trinity were able to collect it and put a shot on goal. Only a superb reflex save from keeper Liam Doherty prevented the scores from nearly drawing level.
Kerry managed to break the press of Trinity by working long passes down the wings to forwards O’Sullivan and Padraig Doyle, who did well to hold play up top and let the half forward and midfield lines crash through to add a few more points to the tally. As the whistle blew to close out the first half, Kerry found themselves up by a margin of 1-9 (12 points) to 0-2 (2 points).
When play resumed, Trinity were the ones who came out firing and Kerry found themselves stuck on their heels for the first five minutes of the second half. A quick point was thrown over, along with several near misses, and Kerry narrowly avoided conceding two goals through brilliant individual efforts by Liam Doherty, whose kick saves pushed both efforts just wide of the net.
After surviving that initial barrage, the Kerry defense began to stabilize and play began to shift in the other direction. Half back James O’Neill showcased his tenacity and pace, snuffing out multiple attacks down the wing and carrying the ball forward to initiate counter attacks. Kerry made the most out of these chances, with forward Conor Sweeney putting in the second goal of the match to give his side a bit more breathing room.
With time winding down Trinity once again pressed forward and were able to convert another point, but were caught out during a Kerry counter and the third goal of the match by Cathal Moriarty put the emphasis on a solid win for the green and gold.
The final score of 3-18 (27 points) to 0-4 (4 points) might make it appear that the match was one-sided, but to those watching it was much more closely contested than the final line indicates. Trinity were fit, fierce, and applied plenty of pressure throughout to keep Kerry on their toes. While the result didn’t go their way this time, Trinity no doubt have a bright future ahead and should only improve as they gain more experience with Championship football.
Kerry will look to keep their momentum going in two weeks when they face Donegal on Saturday, June 19.
Man of the Match: Liam Doherty
Kerry Scoring
- Conor Sweeney (1-2, 5 points)
- Tommy Farrell (0-5, 5 points)
- Declan O’Sullivan (1-1, 4 points)
- Cathal Moriarty (1-0, 3 points)
- Connor Stark (0-3, 3 points)
- Oisin McCormack (0-2, 2 points)
- Jame O’Neill (0-2, 2 points)
- Padrag Doyle (0-1, 1 point)
- James Farrell (0-1, 1 point)
- Aaron Moore (0-1, 1 point)
Kerry Boston GFC 