You might even say it was the best kick of the day…
Whatever about Johnny Sexton’s immortal drop goal in Paris, Patrick Doyle – and certainly no-one in the Knocknagree club – will ever forget his 45′ in Croke Park.
The All-Ireland junior football championship heads for Cork after a Fintan O’Connor-inspired outfit beat Westmeath’s Multyfarnham 3-13 to 3-9 in the decider but there were three late, late goals.
Two of them came from substitute Mark Fallon who rallied the Leinster champions back into the game when injury time looked like a foregone conclusion but the other, and it proved vital for the buffer in the end, came from Knocknagree goalkeeper Patrick Doyle who’s 45-metre effort curled the whole way into the top corner and raised a green flag.
Sean Cavanagh not messing about with that ball https://t.co/K5rXAR7dYK
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) February 3, 2018
You hear stories of these sort of mythical scores and, to be honest, you see it at underage level a lot too, balls just dropping into the nets over the ‘keeper’s head from a long range free. But this was a 45’ that, albeit, wasn’t struck completely true, but it bent and dipped and planted itself into the corner of the net as if he meant it all along.
Doyle just ran away with a cheeky smile on his face, his finger in the air, and the Multyfarnham defence in shock. When he went to bed on Friday night he wasn’t dreaming of rattling the onion bag in the All-Ireland final unless he knew that perfect trajectory and perfect whip would combine for a perfect goal.
Knocknagree powered on to win the whole thing and, forever, Doyle’s goal will be remembered in the Cork club’s folklore.
In all the madness, we almost missed @KnocknagreeGAA keeper Patrick Doyle's top corner beauty pic.twitter.com/FODKW7G8qE
— Conán Doherty (@ConanDoherty) February 3, 2018
