Champs should see off stern Kiltale challenge

Kiltale and Kildalkey would have both had ambitions of getting themselves straight into a semi-final, however, they both find themselves in this quarter-final at Pairc Tailteann on Sunday (4pm) having not really done a whole lot wrong in the group stages, writes Tom Gannon.

After Kiltale drew with Ratoath in round one, they were always going to have a battle on their hands for the automatic qualification, however, in the end, a scrambled performance against Longwood cost them.

At times Kiltale have been excellent. They scored 15 points on the trot in the final quarter of their tie against Na Fianna who, up until the latter stages, had put in a really gritty performance.

The likes of Jack Regan, Iarla Hughes and Peter Durnin have all been as reliable as ever but overall, the consistency in which Kiltale have performed would cause slight doubts especially when they face a team that have continued to improve every time they take to the field.

Nick Fitzgerald’s Kildalkey may have slipped up in their opener against Trim, but since then, they have gone from strength to strength and now they are back resembling the side that won the championship 12 months ago.

Brian O’Halloran has been absolutely outstanding and inside him Nicky Potterton and Paddy Barnwell are causing corner-backs shocking headaches.

The Kildalkey defence led by the likes of Brin Kelly and the recently redeployed Paddy Conneely looks very solid too.

If they continue on this trajectory of improvement game after game, they are going to be very hard to stop.

At their very best, Kiltale can compete with Kildalkey but they would need to put in a seasonal best performance, while Kildalkey just needs to continue on their upward trajectory and they will have a great chance of progressing to the semi-finals - and beyond. Verdict – Kildalkey.