Delaney's saves help Drimnagh keep title

FOR the second year in succession, Drimnagh Castle CBS have proved unbeatable in the Irish Permanent sponsored FAIS Leinster Senior Cup. St Kieran's of Kilkenny did enough in yesterday's final at Whitehall to mount a claim to be the Dublin side's equals, but rarely threatened to topple the reigning All Ireland champions.

The challengers seemed to have all the attributes required for a serious assault on the holders. But, despite creating plenty of chances around the area, their finishing tended to be poor, and on those occasions when it wasn't they were frustrated by the fine goalkeeping of Dean Delaney, the Irish international.

Drimnagh's last line of defence commanded his area with considerable authority throughout, but there were times when it appeared that he was just there to frustrate Henry Shefflin.

St Kieran's scored in all eight games that took them to yesterday's final, and in the first period, when he was only contained by the generally illegal attentions of Mark Lovett, Shefflin emerged as the most likely player to add to the 22 goals they had amassed.

His best chance of the period came shortly before the break when he drew an excellent stop from Delaney. Shortly afterwards his search for an opener was altered to the pursuit of an equaliser follow a 41st minute cross from the left by Jason Doyle that proved too high for Noel McNally but fell nicely at the far post for the head of the advancing David McAvinue.

Just before the hour McAvinue set up the Dubliners' second with an angled ball that Brian Skehan failed to cut out. McNally was the one to profit from the error, taking the ball down well and slotting it past goalkeeper Patrick Holden.

From then on, with the exception of a McAvinue lob in injury time that bounced just wide, it was the Kilkenny outfit who created all of the chances. But they just couldn't pull a goal back.

Shefflin was wide of the mark more than once, most agonisingly in the 62nd minute after great work by Brian Jordan, but did force another good stop from Delaney. Robert Griffiths, too, fired over. In the end their best chance came from an ambitious overhead kick by defender Shane Carew which found the target but simply lacked the power to pose a serious threat.