In a game that was pushed back to 8 o’clock and saw the return of the water break, due to high temperatures, Gaeil Colmcille were pipped at the post when a late flurry of scores from Oldcastle saw them take the points.
Although they lost the throw in, a turnover by the home side resulted in them scoring a point with only 30 seconds on the clock. Andrew Gormley quickly equalised with a free and two minutes later, a speculative shot from Liam Barry found the back of the net. Oisin O’Reilly and Finn Tegemaier added further points from play as Kells continued to dominate the opening ten minutes. Oldcastle finally stemmed the flow of scores with a point from play. The momentum swung their way as they added two more from frees and another from play to leave just the minimum between the sides when referee Keith Sherrin blew for the first water break. Although an Oisin Walsh point from play extended the Kells lead just after the resumption this was soon cancelled out by Oldcastle.
For the remainder of the half the hosts were much more efficient in front of goal. They equalised on 20 minutes, took the lead with a goal on 25 minutes, and pushed that lead out to four just before the half time whistle.
The Gaeils started the second half with intent. O’Reilly pointed early and Walsh followed up with a free. Kells won the kick out and O’Reilly was pulled down as he ran through on goal resulting in a black card for the Oldcastle defender.
Again Walsh converted the free. The next score was an Oldcastle free, their first score of the second half. With Kells starting to make the numerical advantage count, Walsh pointed from play before Liam Barry equalised with a free. A well worked 45 saw Jack Hogg gain possession and lay the ball off to Walsh who slotted it over. As the Gaeils defence turned back any attack Oldcastle had to offer, Barry extended the lead to 2 with a fine effort on 25 minutes.
Two minutes later the home side added only their second point of the half. With only seconds of normal time remaining Kells were hit with a sucker punch when an Oldcastle forward slipped in behind the Kells defence and found the back of the net. As the Gaeils pushed forward in search of a goal, a counter attack from the hosts resulted in a free which was pointed to leave three between the teams at the final whistle.
The final round sees Kells play O’Mahonys in Navan, and a win would leave them with a chance to make the semifinal depending on results elsewhere.
Gaeil Colmcille: Conor Flanagan, Taidgh Dardis, Bruno Griffin, Rian Early, Killian Kelly, John Gormley, Tiernan Anderson, Oisin O’Reilly (0-02), Jack Hogg, Noah Boshell, Andrew Gormley (0-01f) Finn Tegemaier (0-01), Harry Flanagan, Oisin Walsh (0-05, 2f), Liam Barry (1-02, 1f)
Subs: Glen Gavigan for Conor Flanagan, Callum Mitchell for Tiernan Anderson, Liam Devine for Harry Flanagan.
