Junior C Football Championship Quarter Final

Kilmacud Crokes 1-10 Ranelagh Gaels 3-3

RANELAGH Gaels suffered injury-time heartbreak in the Junior C Football Championship quarter-final at Glenalbyn on Thursday night.

The Gaels got themselves out of a seemingly impossible position near the end and it looked as though they had done enough to force a replay with Kilmacud Crokes.

But the home side fired a well-worked point with virtually the last kick of the game and Ranelagh were dumped out of the championship in the cruellest possible fashion.

However, they still have a huge amount to play for this year, with promotion from Division 9 remaining on the cards and Sheridan cup still up for grabs.

An alarming third-quarter fade-out saw the Gaels trail by six points and though they could have been well beaten the players never gave up and they worked themselves back into the game.

A fortuitous goal from Jer McCarthy gave them a life-line with five minutes to go and just seconds later Ken Fitzmaurice was fouled as he jumped for a ball on the edge of the small square.

Johnny Conlon showed real bottle to step up to the pressure penalty kick and though the keeper got a hand to his shot, it just about made it to the back of the net.

This levelled up the game with only injury time left to play and Crokes, who are in Division 8, one above Ranelagh, were clearly rattled.

The visitors had three late chances to win it, but the ball wouldn’t go up the bar.

And credit must go to Kilmacud, home of the All-Ireland club champions, for the patience they showed in working an opening to fire over the winner.

Gaels burst out of the blocks in this game and they were 1-2 to 0-0 up inside the first 15 minutes, with Tiernan McNamara getting the opening goal of the game.

This was some of the best football they had played all season, but they lost the momentum before the break.

Crokes started to win ball around the middle of the field and drove forward to lead at the break on a 0-6 to 1-2 scoreline.