Kildare and Longford played out a thrilling Leinster quarter-final draw - 3-15 to 1-21 - draw in Tullamore yesterday.
Longford enjoyed plenty of the ball in the early minutes of the game but it was Kildare who got the scoreboard up and running thanks to a David Hyland point from play.
Ben McCormack and Adam Tyrell kicked another two points from play in the following minutes before Hyland got his second score of the game to leave Kildare leading by four.
Longford responded well with David McGivney kicking three straight frees before James McGivney levelled the game with a fine score from distance.
Gary Rogers and Daniel Mimnagh linked up well in space before Mimnagh found Darragh Doherty to goal to fire past Mark Donnellan and give Longford a three point lead.
A prompted a perfect response from Kildare who picked off three points without reply from McCormack, O’Flaherty and Brophy to leave the teams level again.
In the last minute of the first half Kildare found the back of the net through Adam Tyrell and they led by four at the break.
Tyrell extended Kildare’s lead to five points seconds into the second half and the Lilywhites began to put distance between the teams with a third from David Hyland and another from Tyrell putting seven between the sides.
Longford to their credit could have folded with the deficit getting bigger but responded admirably with points from David McGivney and John Keegan either side of a Mark Hughes goal which brought the Longford men back to within one point of Kildare again with 15 minutes to go.
There was a great exhibition of individual scores on both sides in the closing stages from Barry McKeon and Mark Hughes for Longford and another two from Adam Tyrell ensuring Longford remained just one behind as the game entered additional time.
Substitute for Longford Aidan McElligott levelled the game in the 71st minute for Longford with three minutes of additional time to play.
Longford slowly edged themselves forward deep into injury time with the scores still level and it was left to James McGivney to take a crack at goal for the winner but his shot from distance dropped short allowing Kildare to get the ball clear and send the game to extra time.
Three points inside the opening five minutes of extra time for Kildare, a point each for David and Jimmy Hyland and McCormack’s third of the game put them three to the good before James McGivney popped over the score of the game to pull it back to two again.
Jimmy Hyland got his second of the game to leave Kildare leading 1-21 to 2-15 with seconds to go in the first period of extra time but incredibly Longford had the umpire raising the green flag again when captain Michael Quinn found the net after an excellent David McGivney knock down ensuring the teams
were level after the first period of extra time 1-21 to 3-15.
With every player out on their feet in the second period of extra time and both teams playing quite conservatively not wanting to make any mistakes, there were no further scores in the second period of extra time with a fantastically entertaining game finishing 1-21 to 3-15 with the replay to take place in Tullamore next Sunday at 3pm.
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