Kelly runs riot to fire Shels to historic title

Joe Kelly powered Shelmaliers to a historic first title at the expense of St Anne's in this replay played in atrocious conditions at Wexford Park yesterday afternoon.

Two first-half goals laid the foundations for Shels who had a 10-point lead at the break. However, they had to survive a late St Anne’s surge sparked by a 54th-minute Diarmuid O’Keeffe goal.

Despite an early deadlock where they were 0-2 apiece, the Shels looked sharper, harrying and hassling the St Anne’s into mistakes, and with Kelly striking over his side’s five opening points they had a 0-5 to 0-2 lead by the end of the opening quarter.

Their first goal arrived in the 21st minute, a rather fortuitous affair, that saw a Kelly lob off the sideline being lost in the air by goalkeeper Joe Codd, with both ball and keeper ending up in the net. Buoyed by this, corner-back Simon Donohoe went on an audacious 70-metre run, setting up Eoghan Nolan for their second goal just on the break.

Kelly struck for an opportunistic goal after 48 minutes to make it 3-8 to 0-5 before keeper Brian Murphy pulled off a super save from Liam Rochford. St Anne's weren't dead and buried however and two quick-fire Diarmuid O'Keeffe pointed frees, followed by a fine goal with six minutes to go, left the scoreline 3-8 to 1-7.

Sub David Fogarty got a point and O'Keeffe added another three freesto cut the deficit to just three as the game moved into injury time. But the Shels held firm for a deserved and historic win.