Kilmessan straight into last four

Two of the counties top teams gave an exhibition of excellent hurling at Longwood on Saturday evening, but in the end it was Kilmessan who had a bit more guile and experience than Kildalkey to book their place in the SHC semi-finals and push the Villagers into the quarter-finals. Both sides were unbeaten prior to Saturday"s clash and both were staking a major claim for overall honours, but it was Kilmessan who will hold the psychological upperhand following their hugely impressive performance that stifled the normally fluent Kildalkey men. Kildalkey"s trademark has been their excellent free-flowing style and ability to get scores from all over the field. However, Kilmessan handed them a lesson in how to close down a team, limit their chances and suffocate them into mistakes. Kilmessan were like the wily old fox, toying with their prey, but they know that if they are win this year"s Jubilee Cup then they will have a tough test on their hands, not only against Kildalkey, but also against a couple of other contenders. Kildalkey made errors that haven"t been their form this campaign. Noel Kirby was wayward with a number of frees and they conceded scores on the counter-attack. Kilmessan contained the Kildalkey dangermen, closed them down very quickly then struck with some superb points. It was an intriguing game throughout. There were many magnificent scores from both sides, but the most crucial arrived in the 13th minute when Anton O"Neill fielded brillantly, offloaded to Ger O"Neill and the midfielder blasted an unstoppable effort to the net to push Kilmessan into a 1-1 to 0-2 lead, an advantage they didn"t relinquish. The two O"Neills were supreme and Mal Doyle also tormented the Kildalkey rearguard, but it was the defensive abilities of Kilmessan that ensured they limited Kildalkey. Peter Farrell was peerless for the winners and Stephen Clynch, David Donnelly and Mark Reilly also played really well. Kildalkey too had several excellent displays, particularly from Paudger Geoghegan, Sean Corrigan and Sean Heavey, but Kilmessan had the experience and know-how to get the business done. Kildalkey relied too heavily on frees with only four of their scores coming from play and Kirby was also uncharacteristically off form. Kilmessan varied their attacking tactics and raised flags from play on seven occasions. The scores were traded evenly throughout the opening period, but Ger O"Neill"s goal and Nicky Horan"s pointed free disrupted a sequence of both sides cancelling out each other"s scores. At the end of the opening period Kilmessan finished with the last two points from Doyle to lead by 1-6 to 0-5 at the break. That advantage was stretched after the resumption when Ger O"Neill pointed magnificently and Clynch lofted a free over the bar from his own 45-metre line. Kildalkey responded with a brace from Kirby, but anything Kildalkey could do, Kilmessan matched them as the teams shared 10 second-half points and it was Martin Curran"s side who maintained their four-point cushion to march into the semi-finals. Kilmessan - M Brennan; R Donnelly, D Donnelly, C Keena; P Farrell, S CLynch (0-1 free), M Reilly; M Horan, G O"Neill (1-1); J Keena, P Reynolds (0-1), N Horan (0-5, four frees); K Keena, A O"Neill (0-1), M Doyle (0-2). Kildalkey - G McNally; E Potterton, S Forde, D Laharte; P Geoghegan, S Corrigan, M Doran; T Fox, C Dunne (0-1); P Keogh, M Keogh (0-1), N Kirby (0-6, five frees, one '65"); E Keogh, S Heavey (0-1), G Geoghegan. Subs - D Doran for Dunne 41 mins, N Fitzgerald (0-1) for G Geoghegan 50m. Referee - Fergus Devereux (Kildare).