All-Ireland SFC semi-final: Kerry 1-17 Derry 1-15
Come back with your shield or on it.
TWELVE months ago, it took little more than the sweat on Galway's fingertips to put Derry's flame out.
They didn’t let the same thing happen twice.
Derry lost this All-Ireland semi-final. When they wake up in their beds on Monday morning, it’ll still be a Kerry-Dublin final, just like everyone said it would be.
But few thought it would be a weekend like it was.
The Ulster champions, like Monaghan before them, stored up all the talk of a foregone conclusion and brought a kamikaze style of football that we haven’t seen from them before.
It took Kerry to their knees but the Oak Leafers just couldn’t deliver the knockout blow.
They had chances, no doubt about it. They’ll look back on three points from their last sixteen attacks. You can’t pin it all on a referee.
But equally, Joe McQuillan’s decision to give Stephen O’Brien a free in the 66th minute turned the game.
Ciaran McFaul had just thrown himself full length on Jason Foley’s left boot and was pumping to the delirious Canal End as the ball came out. But O’Brien had been given an advantage for what could only be described as a brush on his jersey.
Derry, leading by 1-14 to 1-12 at the time, have a huge psychological lift ripped from their arms.
Their legs were tiring, absolutely, but the lead was theirs and that was the key thing for them in terms of controlling the final moments.
Sean O’Shea points the free. For the first time all day, they get a proper squeeze on Odhran Lynch’s kickout because it came from a set play. Kerry win possession, another free (no question over this one) and they’re level through David Clifford.
Paudie Clifford gets his hands to the next kickout and O’Brien, whom Derry’s failure to properly pick up in the last 25 minutes cost them too, knocks Kerry into the lead off his left foot. The smile on his face tells the story. After 69 minutes where it really didn’t look like they were going to, they’ve broken Derry’s resistance.
The Kingdom kick on for home, with the gaps opening everywhere as the underdogs frantically dig through the dirt in search of the keys they’d held just minutes earlier.
It was some effort though.
Whatever Kerry might say about it, they did not see this coming.
Four goal chances in the opening six minutes, two at either end, one of each converted, headlined a crazy start that nobody had anticipated.
Derry had been reluctant to trust themselves against Galway last year. But against a man of David Clifford’s class, they decided today was the day to open up and have a cut off it. It so nearly worked.
Brendan Rogers turned in a heroic 70 minutes. Gareth McKinless deserved better than to be stretchered off on a buggy deep into stoppage time, for he had run the sands out on himself.
Jason Foley had kept eight clean sheets in his last 11 championship games. He won his first race with Shane McGuigan. That was about the last he won.
The Slaughtneil man brought his big game when it was called for. He had three from play in the first half. Everything from Shane Ryan’s hip to David Clifford’s meaty shoulder tried to disrupt his flow. Ryan got away with his and scored, Clifford didn’t and got booked.
But he’s some operator, the big Fossa full-forward. He didn’t take a shot that Chrissy McKaigue wasn’t throwing himself on, that he hadn’t been nudged off-balance before taking, but it made no difference. Nine points, four from play, one a mark off his right foot, he is just a gargantuan footballer.
They’re not as much a one-man team as is made out but today, Kerry were that. He hitched them up and delivered them to the final. Barring him, O’Brien and Graham O’Sullivan, superb on Ethan Doherty, it’s hard to think of another man in green and gold that would be delighted with themselves.
Therein possibly lies the difference. Derry played out of their skins but it still wasn’t enough.
Take even young Eoin McEvoy, a ropey start, caught for the goal and another chance that Odhran Lynch bailed him out on. In the second half, he made two huge assists, carrying one ball 90 yards and delivering it with perfect timing to Ciaran McFaul.
Conor Glass had a huge battle with Diarmuid O’Connor, but on the other side Rogers won his hands down against Jack Barry. Derry stole a few off Shane Ryan, all of them through Rogers.
It was 1-1 apiece after six minutes, Gavin White having palmed home mere seconds after Gareth McKinless had bundled one over the line after a one-two with Rogers.
Derry lost Padraig McGrogan to injury kicking their equaliser. In the 63 minutes after that, Kerry never led again.
McGrogan going off meant a reshuffle and his replacement, Padraig Cassidy, just never got to the pitch of proceedings.
The game might have been put to bed had Shane Ryan’s strong right arm not brilliantly denied McKinless at close range just two minutes after the thing had been levelled at 1-12 apiece.
But they were gassed too. McKinless, Rogers, Conor Doherty, McCluskey, they ran so hard for so long at Kerry that they just couldn’t hold on when the big ship green and gold started to throw them around with dry land in sight.
Their brave approach so nearly paid off. They gave Kerry no sweeper, Tadhg Morley tied up marking Ciaran McFaul, whereas Derry’s setup was better and did allow McKinless to sit in the pocket.
When McFaul made that goal-saving block from Foley, it felt like their next step would be around behind the band in two weeks’ time.
Alas, it will be the green and gold against the metropolitan blue once more.
Derry fought as hard as they’ve ever fought. But they’ve come back on their shield, not with it.
Kerry: S Ryan (0-1); T O’Sullivan, J Foley, P Murphy; G O’Sullivan, T Morley, G White (1-0); D O’Connor (0-1), J Barry; D Moynihan, P Clifford (0-1), S O’Shea (0-4, 0-1 free), A Spillane; D Clifford (0-9, 0-4 frees, 0-1 mark), P Geaney
Subs: S O’Brien for A Spillane (HT), B Ó Beaglaoich for Murphy (55), T Brosnan for Geaney (55), M Burns for Moynihan (58)
Black card: D O’Connor (28-38)
Yellow cards: D Clifford (35+2), J Barry (50), B Ó Beaglaoich (78)
Derry: O Lynch (0-1); C McKaigue, E McEvoy; G McKinless (1-0); C Doherty (0-1), P McGrogan (0-1), C McCluskey; C Glass, B Rogers (0-2); Paul Cassidy (0-2), C McFaul (0-2), E Doherty; N Toner, S McGuigan (0-6, 0-3 frees), N Loughlin
Subs: Padraig Cassidy for McGrogan (8), B Heron for Padraig Cassidy (51), L Murray for Toner (59), S Downey for McEvoy (71), B McCarron for McKinless (78)
Yellow card: C McKaigue (26)
Referee: J McQuillan (Cavan)
