KILCOCK KINGPINS OF KILDARE FOOTBALL WITH THRILLING WIN OVER TOWERS

 

 

The days when Kilcock roamed victorious on the playing fields of Kildare are recalled by looking back at the Leinster Leader issues of September 1958. Under a headline ‘Brilliant County Final Victory for Kilcock’ the triumph of the Royal Canalsiders was given comprehensive reportage.

Kilcock, for the second year in succession, established themselves as the kingpins of Kildare football when, at St. Conleth’s Park, Droichead Nua, on Sunday last, they beat a hotly fancied Round Towers side by four points in the final of the county senior championships.

The score at the final whistle, 3-12 to 3-8, suggests a close match, but in this respect the score would be misleading.

 Right from the throw-in the victors, playing much better than in any other engagement this season, dominated the exchanges in almost every sector of the field, with Towers never looking the side expected from their pre-match rating of the warm favourites.

 In fact it was only for ten minutes in the middle of the second moiety (an antiquated word for ‘half’) that Kilcock looked in danger of losing the honours, for during that ‘decade’ Towers made a great effort, scoring 3-2 to salvage the game, only to see the winners draw ahead once more.

 The game was rather tame in the first half and looked as if Kilcock were going to have a runaway victory. Towers’ players seemed to be misplaced but when switches were made the great crowd present saw a rejuvenated Towers’ team which wiped out a lead of eleven points in as many minutes.

 When Towers drew level the air was electrified and the majority present sensed a Towers’ victory. It was either team’s game at this time, and with seven minutes to go all seemed set for a draw. Then Kilcock secured the leading point from a free.

 The decision however was clinched when the Kildare goalman came out to meet a ball, missed it, and to his consternation, saw it sent to the net by an incoming Kilcock forward, to give Kilcock a four points lead.

 Towers did not seem to settle down and the first half was a very disappointing one. Kilcock had things all their own way during this moiety and had a respectable lead at half-time. Indeed so one-sided did the match seem that some spectators left the field at the interval very disappointed.

 They would however have been greatly surprised on hearing how near the Towers were to securing victory. Were it not for the easy goal secured by Kilcock in the waning moments a different story might now be told. Peter Maguire of Kilcock was the star of the match; his catching and general soundness gave Kilcock every chance of success. On the other hand Aldridge of Towers was the best man on his team.

 The Gibbons brothers – Paddy & Freddy, L McCormack, B O’Connell and Willie Maguire were the other outstanding players on the winning side. On the Towers’ team one could mention M. Byrne, E. Treacy-when switched, Connolly in the second half, Joe Finlay and young Lindy as doing more than their share to bring Towers victory. The scorers for Kilcock were W. Maguire who notched up an impressive 2-4; P Daly, 1-1; P. Flynn 0-4; L McCormack 0-2; and Davy Dalton 0-1. Round Towers replied per S. Aldridge, 0-8; E Treacy double goal-scorer with 2-0; and P. Loughlin, 1-0.

 The closing minutes of the game were clearly thrilling. Almost on the stroke of time a melee in from of the Towers’ goal saw the ball dribbling around, and Daly just got his foot to it to send it to the Towers net and made the game safe for Kilcock. There were only three minutes left of play but Towers tried very hard to the last. Towers delayed their revival just a few minutes too long and most of their players who played a sterling game deserve the praise due to them for their great revival when another team would have surrendered and faded out.