Kilmessan scoop the title

'Come on Kilmessan, we"ll beat them with 14 men,' was the spirited retort from one stalwart supporter on the Dunganny sideline following Darren Maguire"s straight red card during Saturday"s A HL Div 2 decider against Longwood. Like Kilmessan, the supporter had to adapt his battlecry before the end of an absorbing encounter which kept first-time final referee Ronan Garry from Donaghmore / Ashbourne on his toes and may have convinced hurling chairman TJ Reilly that official linesmen should always be appointed, where possible. And it should have been possible to source two official flagmen to run the virtual line, there was no line on the pitch, although the customary flags sufficed on that front. Had there been an official linesman, the majority of the cards, and there were 11 of them, four were red, might have been avoided. The real flashpoint arose when Kilmessan"s Danny Maguire was left sprawled on the frozen surface following what could hardly be described as a tackle. Unfortunately, the referee did not see the incident and could not take any action, but he had a fine view of Darren Maguire"s retaliation which earned a straight red card while the injured party was assisted from the pitch and brought to hospital. Malcolm Doyle, who was late arriving at the venue due to exam commitments replaced Danny Maguire and added more pace to a lively Kilmessan attack. The Kilmessan players, mentors and supporters showed commendable restraint, especially as two Longwood players had received yellow cards for first-half tackles on Anton O"Neill and Michael Dennehy. Kilmessan were ahead by 0-4 to 0-2 at the end of a fairly low-key opening half with points from Andrew Keena, Eddie O"Brien, Darren Maguire and O"Neill while Longwood stayed in touch through Jim Dorran and Mickey Burke. O"Brien endured a stressful afternoon from his Longwood counterpart Jim Mahon, who broke his own hurl in the opening minutes and spent a lot of the time trying to take the Kilmessan man"s hurl. The sliotar was always at the other end of the pitch during such tussles and it wasn"t in the least surprising when O"Brien was deemed guilty of lashing out in an attempt to hold on to what must be a very valuable hurl. However, the referee didn"t see the original incident and instead witnessed an exchange between O"Brien and Michael Healy which prompted two red cards and the now predictable - 'Come on Kilmessan, we"ll beat them with 13 men.' Prior to that incident, Longwood"s Noel Ennis was fortunate to escape with a yellow card following another of those 'tackles" which left a Kilmessan player, Kevin Reilly, requiring attention. Three pointed O"Neill frees kept Kilmessan in the ascendancy as Longwood huffed and puffed for 30 second-half minutes, but managed to remain in contention with well-taken points from Ray Dorran, Aaron Ennis and Karl Ennis. The card count gathered momentum when Christopher Curtis and Jim Dorran collected yellow and that ultimately proved cstly for the Kilmessan full-back who was harshly handed a second yellow in the closing stages. You"ve guessed it - 'Come on Kilmessan, we"ll beat them with 12 men,' was the call from the sideline. When the referee ended the contest, both teams appeared to be good terms, but on this occasion, Longwood cannot take too much credit from their performance. It was a disappointing performance from a team coached by Mike Cole as they had only earned the final ticket with a 1-10 to 0-8 victory over Gaeil Colmcille at the same venue the previous Tuesday night. For Kilmessan, the manner in which they adapted to the red cards was encouraging for selectors Tony Grimes, Peter Gorman and Gerry Martin while the performances of Curtis, before his departure, goalkeeper Matt Bissett, Sean Cummins, Eric Horan, Paul Grimes, Tony Horan and Mark Munnelly were crucial to this success. Kilmessan - M Bissett; S Cummins, C Curtis, E Horan; T Horan, P Grimes, M Munnelly; Danny Maguire, M Dennehy; E O"Brien (0-1), A O"Neill (0-4), K Reilly; Darren Maguire (0-1), A Keena (0-1), D Reilly. Subs - M Doyle for Danny Maguire, V Reilly for D Reilly, S Horan for Grimes. Longwood - B Ennis; D Maguire, E Dixon, J Stenson; M Bermingham, R Dorran (0-1), J Mahon; M Burke (0-1), A Healy; A Ennis (0-1), J Dorran (0-1), M Lee; N Ennis, M Healy, K Ennis (0-1). Sub - D Dixon for Lee. Referee - Ronan Garry (Donaghmore / Ashbourne).