The Thoroughbreds faced Keely s former Shelbourne charges at the AUL Complex in Dublin on Friday night, spent allday Saturday on campus then met Drogheda United at the Meath & District League grounds in Navan on Sunday.

It has been a fabulous exercise, from a tactical and team-building perspective, said Keely..

County face UCD at Coill Dubh this evening (Wednesday, 7pm) and non-league Glebe North at Balbriggan on Sunday, June 30 (5pm) in their final friendly warm-ups before their competitive season starts in the First Division Cup against Limerick on Saturday, July 6 at Newbridge Town.

Meanwhile, later this week the club will be launching a limited members draw for the first ever Kildare County jersey. Contact your local KDSL or KDFL club for details.

Shelbourne ..................4

Kildare County ...........1

KILDARE County continued their build-up towards their first season in Eircom League soccer with an excellent work out against Ireland s representative in the Champion s League.

As in previous friendlies Kildare seemed to be able to cope admirably with their higher class of opponents until the rash of second half substitutions saw Shelbourne able to pull away and in the end score a fairly comfortable win.

Kildare went ahead in the eighth minute when Shay Zellor s cross was handled by Ollie Cahill and Keith O Connor stepped up to place the penalty high into the roof of the net - Kildare s first lead in their short history.

Shels struck back straight away and Kildare keeper Tadhg Murphy reacted well to keep out a fine strike from Jim Crawford. However the resulting corner was not properly cleared and when the ball fell to Stuart Byrne, he crossed into the box for the smallest man on the pitch, Richie Baker, to head home the equaliser.

Murphy saved smartly from free kicks by Baker and Trevor Molloy before Kildare winger Gavin Doyle had a great header from a Keith O Connor cross well saved by Steve Williams in the Shels goal.

The amount of substitutions at half-time unsettled County and almost immediately Baker split the Kildare defence with a beautiful pass to Stuart Byrne, who was taken down for a penalty by Murphy and Molloy expertly finished from the spot.

Byrne was by now running the midfield and he deservedly got on the scoresheet when Stephen Geoghegan knocked down a cross and for the midfielder to drive the ball into the net from the edge of the box.

Kildare spent the most of the second half under ferocious pressure but on their breaks forward Doyle showed he had the ability to trouble the best and he didn t give Owen Heary a moment s peace in the Shels defence.

Shels got their fourth from the game s third penalty-kick when a short James O Callaghan back pass was intercepted by French trialist Rasheed, who had his heels clipped by Murphy. Again Molloy made no mistake from the spot kick.

It was really tough luck on Murphy to give away two penalties because for long periods of the game he kept Kildare in the game with some fine saves.

Kildare almost got a last minute goal when David Murphy made a nuisance of himself in the box and when ball fell to Alan Kelly he shot just over from a tight angle but at the final whistle County had learned a valuable lesson in a 4-1 defeat.

Thoroughbreds boss Dermot Keely was disappointed by the end result but said: We showed in the first half that we can live with the best but I was a little disappointed at the ease that Shelbourne were able to get through our defence in the second half.

SHELBOURNE: S Williams; O Heary, D Crawley, J Gannon, B Prenderville, J Crawford, O Cahill, T Molloy, S Byrne, S Geoghegan, R Baker. Subs: Rasheed for Geoghegan, W Houlihan for Cahill, P Fenlon for Crawford.

KILDARE COUNTY:

Tadgh Murphy, Damian Brennan, James O Callaghan, Damian Maher, Gavin Dykes, Ben Whelehan, Gavin Doyle, Barry Burke, Keith O Connor, Philip Gorman, Shay Zellor. Subs: Peter Rogers for Whelehan (20

Mins), David Murphy, John Ryan, Cathal O Connor and Derek Griffin for Gorman, O Connor, Burke and Maher (45mins), Ray Scully and Alan Kelly for Doyle and Zellor 57mins), Glen Brien for Rogers (67mins).

Drogheda Utd..............1

Kildare County ...........5

KILDARE County recorded their first ever victory in a pre-season friendly hammering of newly promoted Drogheda United at the Meath & District League grounds in Navan last Sunday.

Carlow native Alan Kelly grabbed a stunning hat-trick to set the

Thoroughbreds up for a memorable victory.

Kelly had opened the scoring as early as the second minute, heading brilliantly past United keeper Anthony Fennelly from Derek Griffin s deep cross from the right wing.

Excellent play set up Kildare s second goal just two minutes later, Shay Zellor racing through on the right and his low cross was turned home emphatically by former Newbridge Town winger Kelly.

David Kelly almost pulled one back for Drogheda in the 15th minute but 18-year-old County keeper Tadhg Murphy tipped over spec-tacularly from the United winger s 30-yard free-kick.

Zellor was cruelly denied number three for Kildare in the 17th minute after a clever pass by Keith O Connor set up his former Longford Town teammate, whose low shot beat Fennelly but rebounded back off an upright.

Drogheda got back into the game in the 63rd minute when Derek Delaney put through Evan Creedon - another ex-Longford Town player --and the midfielder beat Murphy with a well-placed shot.

The Thoroughbreds response was immediate, Keith O Connor heading home from an in-swinging corner by Alan Kelly just five minutes later.

Within 60 seconds Kelly had completed his hat-trick after a brilliant cross-field pass put the winger through and his delicate chip over the advancing keeper showed real class.

The rout was completed in the 79th minute when another Newbridge Town graduate, Philip Gorman, raced on to a bad back pass by Drogheda s Bernard Bradley to slot home number five.

DROGHEDA UNITED: Fennelly; Bradley, Cronin, Smith, Mullen, Dunne, Creedon, O Connor, Kelly, Delaney, Quinn. Subs: Omeriou for Quinn (71mins), Broughan for Mullen (77mins), Connolly for Dunne (80mins).

KILDARE COUNTY:

T Murphy; Griffin, O Callaghan, Maher, Dykes, Whelehan, Zellor, C O Connor, Kelly, K O Connor, Ryan. Subs: Brien and Gorman for Dykes and Ryan (45mins), Davis and Scully for T Murphy and C O Connor (56mins) D Murphy and Burke for K O Connor and Zellor (70mins).

Kildare County ...........0

Bohemians ...................2

KILDARE County FC suffered their first ever defeat on Tuesday night as they fell 2-0 to Premier Division stars Bohemians in an absorbing pre-season friendly at Kildare Town.

Dermot Keely s Thoroughbreds put on a good display to thwart Bohs in the first half but ultimately paid the price for making nine second half substitutions.

I was very impressed by Kildare, I think Dermot has gathered a squad together that will surprise a few people in the First Division this season, said Bohemians boss and RTE radio pundit Stephen Kenny.

County had defended resolutely against the Dubliners, who had all but three of their first choice squad available - including new signings Paul Keegan, Derek Coughlan, Paul McNally, Ashley Bayes and Damian Lynch. Kildare left out some of the heroes of Saturday s 2-2 draw with Bray Wanderers, including exciting strikers Philip Gorman and Shay Zellor and midfield powerhouse Ben Whelehan.

It was an excellent night s work, said Keely afterwards. I wanted to have a look at the depth in my squad and some of our younger guys were quite impressive.

Kildare had keeper Fred Davis to thank for preventing Paul Keegan putting the Gypsies ahead on the hour but for the first 60 minutes it was very much honours even. Bohemians finally took the lead in the 65th minute after the home side began to make wholesale changes - 6 5 defender Derek Coughlan poking home after Stephen Caffrey headed down from a deep Dave Morrison corner.

The introduction of former Newbridge Town winger Alan Kelly gave the County attack real zest and he worked well to set up Ray Scully for a 25-yard drive that Bohs keeper Ashley Bayes saved well.

Bohs extended their lead in cruel fashion ten minutes from time, Simon Webb s long range effort taking a dreadful deflection before flying past County sub keeper Tadhg Murphy. Former Celtic striker David Murphy of Monasterevin was unfortunate not to have a debut goal to his name in injury time after he shot home from five yards - keeper Bayes had apparently been fouled.

Kildare s last friendly before the very first league game in its short history will be this evening (Wednesday, June 26) against UCD in Coill Dubh at 7pm.

KILDARE COUNTY:

Fred Davis; Damian Brennan, James O Callaghan, Gavin Dykes, Damian Maher, Mark Revins, Barry Burke, Cathal O Connor, Gavin Doyle, Keith O Connor, John Ryan. Subs: Alan Kelly, Tadgh Murphy, Ray Scully, Derek Griffin & David Murphy for Doyle, Davis, C O Connor, Maher & K O Connor 60 mins; Ray Coleman, Eoin Hetherington, Cormac Ryan & Glen Brien for O Callaghan, Burke, Brennan & Ryan 75 mins.

BOHEMIANS: Bayes; Oman, Webb, McNally, Coughlan, Ryan, Lynch, Caffrey, Morrison, Keegan, Crowe. Subs --McGuinness & Mooney for McNally & Oman 70 mins; Cooney for Keegan 80 mins.

Referee: M Maloney (Kildare).

 

<-- Go Back