Kildare County 2-3 Sporting Fingal

Sporting Fingal showed their mettle in the heat of the battle by reversing a two-nil deficit at Kildare County to record their sixth win in their last seven league matches.

Four days after scalping the mighty Shamrock Rovers in the FAI Ford Cup, Liam Buckley’s side again did it the hard way as Alan Kirby’s winner eight minutes from time sealed a dramatic second half comeback.

Trailing two-nil early in the second half against a side rooted to the bottom of the First Division, Fingal looked in for a shock but a quick response by Gary O’Neill was followed up by Conan Byrne’s 20th goal of the campaign to level it up with 20 minutes left.

Chasing their first home win of the season, Kildare started well and went in front on the half hour mark when Philip Hughes smashed the ball beyond Darren Quigley from the edge of the box.

Former Ipswich Town goalkeeper Darren Kelly was magnificent for the hosts, denying Gary O'Neill, Eamon Zayed and Kirby before the half-time break and Kildare added to their lead in the 51st minute through an excellent Liam Tiernan goal.

O'Neill availed of a stray pass by Tiernan two minutes later to breath life into Fingal and on 71 minutes, top scorer Conan Byrne rattled the net with a 20 yard free-kick.

Fingal stormed forward seeking the winner which duly arrived when Kirby slipped the offside trap and netted his third goal of the week, following a brace at Tallaght on Tuesday.

Another victory in their re-fixed game against Wexford Youths next Monday night at Morton Stadium will send Fingal top of the table on goal difference.

Kildare County: Kelly; Daly; Lawrence (Issaka 65), Tiernan, Doran; Brady, O'Brien (Kinsella 78), Jackson, Farrell; Purcell (Bowers 84), Hughes.
Sporting Fingal: Quigley; Gannon, Maher, P. Byrne, Foley; C. Byrne, McFaul, Bayly (James 90), Kirby; O'Neill, Zayed.
Referee: Graham Kelly (Cork).