ST BRIDES 1-21
KILKERLEY EMMETS 1-8

St Brides saw their long wait for Championship glory finally come to an end on Saturday evening when they powered past neighbours Kilkerley Emmets to claim the Intermediate title.

After a 53-year wait came to an end at Darver, few could begrudge the Knockbridge men their moment in the sun, particularly given them manner in which they got their hands on the Seamus Flood Cup.

In the Darver sunshine, the village side simply blew their opponents away with a storming second half performance as they ended up winning by an impressive 13 points.

Fittingly, one of those point came from the boot of Aaron Hoey with the former Louth star coming in as a second half substitute to help secure the championship medal is career has most certainly deserved.

In what was an excellent team effort from the Brides, there was some excellent individual performances led by the attacking threat of Emmet Kirk, Sean Marry and Kevin Hearty who finished with a total of 15 points between them.

At the other end of the pitch, the defence certainly played their part as they restricted the dangerous Kilkerley trio of Shane Lennon, Tadhg McEnaney and Dan McKeown to just five points.

If history was weighing on the shoulders of the Brides going into the game, it was eased considerably inside two minutes when a foul on Emmet Kirk allowed Paddy Reilly to open the scoring with a goal from the penalty spot.

Shane Lennon got Kilkerley off the mark and despite a point from Kirk at the other end, the Emmets took a grip of the game when Conor Quigley scored 1-2 to put his side 1-3 to 1-1 in front.

Kirk and Reilly then helped the Brides hit back to take a one point lead entering injury-time, but a strong finish to the half saw Marry and James Costello among the points as their side went in at the break with a 1-8 to 1-4 advantage.

Lennon and McEnaney pointed early in the second half to cut the gap to two points and at that stage the game was very much in the balance.

However, the Brides were determined not to let the opportunity slip from their grasp as the moved up a gear and a brilliant display for the remainder of the game saw them outscore their opponents by 0-13 to 0-3.

Kirk, Marry and Hearty were instrumental in that surge as they brought their totals for the game to six, five and four respectively, while Kilkerley’s hopes were further hampered by the loss of Lennon to a second yellow.

The Emmets simply had no answer to a Brides team who finished in the style of champions with four points in the dying minutes, including efforts from Ciaran Deane, David Kettle and fittingly from Aaron Hoey.

ST BRIDES: Darren Breen; Ronan Bailey, Cillian Kirk, David Kettle 0-1, Conor Deane, Michael Keane; Liam Molloy, Patrick Reilly 1-1; Andrew Smyth, Sean Marry 0-5, James Costello 0-1; Ciaran Deane 0-2, Kevin Hearty 0-4, Emmet Kirk 0-6. Subs: Richie Halpenny for A Smyth, Aaron Hoey 0-1 for M Keane, Michael Keane for L Molloy, Sean Brennan for E Kirk.

KILKERLEY EMMETS: Rian Hand; James Fegan, Adam Shields, Fintan Brady; Barra McCarthy Ciaran McGlynn, Ciaran Clarke; Cathal Bellew, Ciaran Bellew; Patrick Murtagh , Tadhg McEnaney 0-3, Kieran Murtagh; Daniel McKeown, Shane Lennon 0-2, Conor Quigley 1-2. Subs: Ewan McEnteggart for K Murtagh; Shaun McElroy 0-1 for C Clarke; Cormac Bellew for B McCarthy; Sean Hand for C Quigley; Killian Kampes for D McKeown.

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