Late drama as Baltinglass draw with Éire Óg in Wicklow Senior football championship

John McGrath was denied a late match-winning point as Baltinglass were held to a draw against a spirited Éire Óg Greystones outfit in the Wicklow senior football championship.

The sides were deadlocked at 0-11 apiece when the experienced forward swung a right footed effort towards the posts. While McGrath and the Baltinglass supporters celebrated what would have been the match-winning point, it was ruled a wide.

Up to that point, it seemed as if the West Wicklow club would be made to pay for some extremely wasteful shooting in front of the posts, with two goal chances and 13 wides threatening to derail their chances of victory.

Baltinglass had to be patient against a disciplined and well-organised Greystones in the first-half.

While they played with the wind at their back in the opening period, they would often drop all 14 outfield players behind their own 45 when Baltinglass went forward, seeking to frustrate their West Wicklow rivals.

And for the first 20 minutes, that tactic worked. Baltinglass were restricted to half openings and ended the half with six wides, while Eire Og looked capable on the break. Darren Hayden, in particular, looked sharp, and shot three points from play in the first 30 minutes.

Yet as the half ticked into its last ten minutes, Baltinglass seemed to work out how to break Greystones down, taking advantage of their zonal defending by punching holes with penetrating runs, with Jack Kirwan particularly dangerous in that regard.

The young midfielder’s potency was on display from the get go. He carried it forward before firing a kick pass into John McGrath. The ball broke back to Kirwan via Tommy Keogh, but for him to fire his goal chance wide.

Greystones got the game’s first two scores through Hayden and Shaun Cranley and, while Kevin O’Brien’s men brought it back through a McGrath score, set up by one of those penetratiing runs by Kirwan, Eire Og very nearly got the game’s first goal but for a super save by Mark Jackson on Joe Prendergast.

However, when Dan Kelly knocked over a free from a foul on Pat Burke who had broken through the lines, Baltinglass seemed to grow in stature. McGrath was set up by Kirwan for the second time to draw the two teams level before the latter helped himself to a point on the angle to give Baltinglass the lead.

Eire Og responded well through excellently taken scores from Dan Rooney and Darren Hayden, but Baltinglass ended the half with scores from Johnny and Tommy Keogh to take a 0-6 to 0-5 lead into the half-time break.

While it was expected that Baltinglass may pull away with the wind at their back in the second-half, and they created the chances to do so, Eire Og proved a stubborn outfit that very nearly snatched a win despite going four points down early in the second-half.

Stephen Heaslip and John McGrath got their lead out to that point as Baltinglass built on superiority over Eire Og kick-outs thanks to the physical presence of Kirwan, while Pat Burke won his fair share of turnovers.

While Shaun Cranley reduced arrears to two on 49 minutes, Baltinglass responded with a Dan Kelly free to extend it back out to three with less than ten minutes to go. It was from here that the wides really built up, as Baltinglass missed the target three further times before they next scored.

In the meantime, Eire Og, encouraged by their adversaries’ wastefulness, worked their way into the game. Brendan Cunningham was particularly impactful off the bench, contribute two points from play, while fellow sub Conor Mackle helped himself to one.

Meanwhile, Fintan O’Shea represented a frequent source as an outball to carry them forward down the right hand side. Cranley rattled off two scores back to back, one free and one from an attacking mark, while Mackle stroked over a sublime strike to draw the sides level heading into the final two minutes.

On 59 minutes, all of Baltinglass’ wayward shooting threatened to scupper their chances when Cunningham blasted the ball over the black spot to hand Greystones the lead, only for Mark Jackson, who had missed two earlier frees, to get his name on the board from another set piece to salvage the draw.

Baltinglass: Mark Jackson (0-1f); Arun Daly Danne, Billy Cullen, Chris Grimes; James Fleming, Stephen Heaslip (0-1), Pat Burke; Sean Doody, Jack Kirwan (0-1); Tadhg O’Toole, Dan Kelly (0-2f), Paddy Kirwan; Tommy Keogh (0-2, 1f), John McGrath (0-3), Johnny Keogh (0-1). Subs: Karl Furlong for T. O’Toole (35), Patrick Whelan for S. Heaslip (43), Jack Fleming for T. Keogh (60)

Éire Óg: Billy Norman; James Wood, Stephen Kelly, Conall Deeney; Fintan O’Shea, Fionn O’Carroll, Daniel Healy; Gavin O’Shea, Peter Keane; Darren Hayden (0-3), Dan Keane, Dave Rooney (0-1); Cillian Keane, Shaun Cranley (0-4, 1f, 1m), Joe Prendergast. Subs: Danny Wood for C. Deeney (HT), Brendan Cunningham (0-2) for D. Healy (HT), Dan Clark for C. Keane (47), Conor Mackle (0-1) for D. Rooney (49)

Referee: Kieron Kenny.