Junior Championship semi-final Milltown vs Robertstown

Great tie, local derby with no love lost between these teams...only the smallest of margins separated them in the 2008 final!!


Junior A Football Championship Final 2008; Milltown: 0-14 Robertstown: 1-10

THREE unanswered points in the closing stages of this Tom Cross Junior A Final sealed the win for Milltown over their fellow parishioners as St Conleth's Park witnessed scenes of jubilation on one hand and devastation on the other.

Milltown weren't expected to win this game, they weren't expected to win the one before it either, but there was no doubt they deserved to plying their trade in the intermediate championship next year.

Next year will see a very distant notion for the Robertstown players.

Like every year they will be named amongst the possible winners, but if they want to do it they will need to do more on the big days.

It was a game where fireworks were expected, but the crowd had to make do with sparklers up to the last quarter when this encounter kicked into life.

It was Milltown who were playing the football and driving on at the end and they were the better team without question.

Robertstown looked good at the start with Joe Kavanagh converting two dead balls. The full-forward failed to score from play, indeed the losing outfit's scores all came from frees bar one.

Milltown's opening score was a spectacular kick from a sideline ball courtesy of Ian Fitzgerald, he hit one of his right foot a minute later to raise a huge cheer from the large crowd.

Myles O'Reilly kept the momentum going with another free for the first of his six points of the match. Eoghan O'Toole fired over a 45 as Milltown were really dominating proceedings. They were two points up, but it could have been five a minute later as Eoin O'Sullivan hit fresh air with the goal at his mercy. As the ball came across two other men had the chance to put it away. Luckily for him he would not be ruing the opportunity at the final whistle.

Damien Leeson eased a free from the edge of the D to get Robertstown's first point in 15 minutes. Leeson was following his man Fitzgerald who was operating close to goal. This was not ideal for the Kildare junior player as it curbed his attacking threat.

Myles O'Reilly got two more points from placed balls as Milltown were looking to finish the opening 30 minutes strongly. This didn't go to plan as Robertstown got a goal just before the interval.

Midfielder Dave Mathews punched a high ball into the square to the net amid a crowd of bodies. Having failed to get going Robertsown went into the dressing rooms level.

Joe Kavanagh hit a free to get his side in front only for O'Reilly to cancel it out, and then Ian Fitzgerald finished after Kevin Dowling went on a great run.

Kavanagh raised another white flag to tie it all up once again before Mickey Moran got Robertown's solitary score form play. Another free from Kavanagh put his side ahead by two. Fitzgerald kept Milltown in touch with a free, before Damien Leeson hit another dead ball between the sticks.

Milltown then brought in fresh legs as they knew it was now or never.

Another free from Myles O'Reilly and a good score from Damien Keogh drew the game. Joe Kavanagh put Robertsown in front for the last time in the 55th minute.

Myles O'Reilly then picked the best possible time to swing over his only point from play, as Milltown looked stronger coming into the home stretch.

The substitutions worked well and two of the new men in got on the scoresheet. Michael Colleton ran up to slice over before Vincent Murray swung over in front of the posts.

With the last kick of the day Damien Leeson blazed his free over the bar as Milltown lined the goals.

Milltown looked the better side and had players like Fitzgerald, O'Reilly, and Emmet Mulhall who kept the heads throughout and showed their experience.

Robertstown have the players to win this competition, and they know they have a lot more to give than they showed on Sunday.

Milltown: Derek Moore, Colin O'Shea, Andrew Dunne, Rory Donohue, Owen Hearty, Hugh Garrett, Darren O'Shea, Emmet Mulhall, Eoghan O'Toole 0-1 (45), Kevin Dowling, Ian Fitzgerald 0-4 (2f), Wayne Dignam, Damien Keogh 0-1, Myles O'Reilly 0-6 (5f), Eoin O'Sullivan. Subs: Michael Colleton 0-1 for O'Shea (48m), Bernard Geraghty for Dowling (50m), Vincent Murray 0-1 for O'Sullivan (50m), Anthony Dunne for Dignam (54m)

Robertstown: Raymond Kelly, Niall Kane, Mark Kelly, Peter Dunne, John O'Sullivan, Damien Leeson 0-3 (3f), Frank Dowling, Dave Mathews 1-0, Frank Dowling, Kevin Fitzgerald, Mickey Moran 0-1, Adrian McNamee, Dave Nolan, Joe Kavanagh 0-6 (6f), Chris Byrne. Subs: Diarmuid Riordan for McNamee inj (15m), Declan Percival for Nolan (57m).

Referee: Fergal Barry.

this should be different to the last time they played i cant see robertstown losin this one although it should be a close counter robertstown have more organisation than milltown and should win by a goal or more

Was that 2008 ? Time flies.

I remember thinking that day that Milltown definitely had the better footballers and deserved to win.This will be a close game.

Id say the winner of this will win it out...robertstown no longer soley rely on kavanagh to get goals... Aiden Dunne nearly garentees 4/5 points a game now... Milltown fairly good solid div2 team tho and have good subs to come in too... could swing it for them

Robertsown should win this game. They are teh better team and have the better forwards and should win by more than 3

Ah yeah they should win but these forwards that are ment to be better only got 2 points from play in 08 finaland zero scores from play in 2010 final...they can't seem to do it under pressure...

when is it on. Might pop over to look at it

Sat at 2:15 in st. conleths.

Jimmy white wrote:

Ah yeah they should win but these forwards that are ment to be better only got 2 points from play in 08 finaland zero scores from play in 2010 final...they can't seem to do it under pressure...

yeah thats if your not consideing they have new corner forwards since the 2010 final

They are a different team from last year. Stretch has them flying

The Town are flying alright but Milltown's experience of playing in Div.2 must count for something. They were several gears ahead of Castlemitchell in the quarter-final.

That said, the Town are very hard to beat at any time. A great championship team.

rgb wrote:

The Town are flying alright but Milltown's experience of playing in Div.2 must count for something. They were several gears ahead of Castlemitchell in the quarter-final.

That said, the Town are very hard to beat at any time. A great championship team.

wouldnt agree they were severeal gears ahead of castlemitchell, the number of goal chances missed by castlemitchell in that game must have been 4 or 5 along with the fortunate goal milltown got themselves and you can be sure robeertstown will create more goal chances than castlemitchell and more than likely take them chances, milltowns full back line wont be able to cope with the robertstown full forward line and il predict robertstown to win this one by 5 plus points

Quote :

the number of goal chances missed by castlemitchell in that game must have been 4 or 5

In fairness centreback castlemitchell's only real threat on goal came from the penalty attempt and rebound. Yes the milltown goal was abnormal but even without the goal I felt milltown were the better team throughout.
Having said that robertstown will pose a completely different threat to milltown but I believe they have the players to live with them...I attended the matches milltown played against teams such as Castledermot and Straffen who both had full teams including county players and Milltown proved well able for them so I dont think the Milltown lads will have any fear of Robertstown.
I think its down to the day though, and its a very tough match to call. With Fergal barry calling the shots both teams better have their freetakers on form!!

I would have to agree. The imports in the Town full-forward line have really improved things there.

To say they are a good championship team is not borne out by results in recent years.How many finals have they blown ?

tomcruise wrote:

Was that 2008 ? Time flies.

I remember thinking that day that Milltown definitely had the better footballers and deserved to win.This will be a close game.

Cant believe that either, only seems like yesterday. Some party out in Milltown that night.

i agree with ya butterfingers they were the better team throughout but they should have conceeded goals that day and we all know how robertstown love to get goals, i wouldnt agree that the penalty was the only real goal chance, castlemitchell had the ball in the back of the net in the second half only for a softish free out also in the first half one of there players was bearing down on goals with the defender pulling his shorts but he got the shot away which produced a fine save they also had a fisted chance go centimetres wide in the first half and another occasion they had 2 players over and the forward on the ball took a handy point with a definite goal on.
robertstown will score goals i`d imagine but milltown are a fit team and should put up another bigish score so it should be a great game to watch

Centreback, I mean that Milltown played the game at a much faster pace than Castlemitchell did and it might well be down to the faster pace of Div.2 football.

TC, they are a good championship team. They don't have to play well or dominate possession to win matches and that makes them hard to beat. The fact that they haven't got over the line yet doesn't change that. You have to out-battle them to beat them and not many teams are able to do that.

Milltown have just one of the six starting defenders from the 2008 final still playing at the moment, which shows just how much their team has been devastated since then.

Someone else mentioned Fergal Barry- the team that plays cuter with the ref will be the winner.

Really looking forward to it. Town are deservedly favourites but Milltown never mind playing them.

This is it now for Robertstown.Have they got the bottle to win this game.They had 4 easy group games.They manged to avoid TMH,Milltown and Clogherinkoe in the group stages.I think they can do it this year.They look really good and i think they will win this game by 2 points.

Finished a draw. 1-10 each. replay

Robertstown put penalty over the bar 4 mins into injury time

mrblobby wrote:

Finished a draw. 1-10 each. replay

Robertstown put penalty over the bar 4 mins into injury time

Did he just chip it over the bar like he meant to take the point?

If he did, that is very conservative given the new penalty spot!??

he took his point!!

Imagine he had missed going for goal though?

ElGuerrouj wrote:

mrblobby wrote:

Finished a draw. 1-10 each. replay

Robertstown put penalty over the bar 4 mins into injury time

Did he just chip it over the bar like he meant to take the point?

If he did, that is very conservative given the new penalty spot!??

I think 90% of teams would have kicked it over, I know I would..

mrblobby wrote:

he took his point!!

Imagine he had missed going for goal though?

From the old penalty spot I'd agree with you but from the new penalty spot, I'd say 75/80% of penos are scored. Suppose it depends if you think you'd have a better chance in the replay than of scoring the peno but unless they are around 1/3 to win the replay I think he should have gone for it. Only my opinion all the same.

He was dead right. Better to be looking at a replay that looking at Milltown in the final. The Milltown keeper also saved a peno in the last round so better safe than sorry.

I believe they did have one more chance after the pen and hit it wide. Should be a cracker again next weekend