Kerry wake from old nightmare to battle past Derry

Brendan Rogers' first-half brilliance helped Derry lead All-Ireland champions Kerry 1-11 to 1-8 at half-time on Sunday at Croke Park

For over an hour of Sunday's All-Ireland Football semi-final, it seemed as though All-Ireland champions Kerry were back in that old familiar nightmare of being put off their aristocratic stroke by hungrier and fitter men from Ulster.

This time, the Kingdom were facing Derry and Kerry boss Jack O'Connor had spoken during week of not expecting a "classic" or and "open end-to-end game because of the way Derry have set up all year".

If that's what he was anticipating, he must have got a bit of a jolt in the opening seconds as Derry chased an immediate goal following Ethan Doherty's dart as Tom O'Sullivan needed to move smartly to block Niall Loughlin's shot.

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It took only another four minutes for the Kerry net to ruffle as the livewire Gareth McKinless poked in the rebound after his own charge had set up the initial chance for another willing runner from deep Brendan Rogers.

Immediately from the restart, the ball was nestling in the Derry net at the other end as Gavin White finished off an attacking move that he himself had started but the Oak Leafers remained unruffled as they set the agenda for the contest.

Chrissy McKaigue was handed the impossible task of attempting to contain arguably the greatest player to walk on to a gaelic football pitch

McKaigue's Clifford task 'damage limitation'

With McKinless and Rogers leading the Derry charge and Paul Cassidy continuing the brilliant point-scoring he has produced all year, Kerry needed David Clifford's brilliance to stay in the contest.

As expected, Chrissy McKaigue was handed the impossible task of damage limitation and while Clifford was indeed brilliant as he went on to slot four points from play in his 0-9 total, the Slaughtneil man did as well as anybody could be expected to do in attempting to shackle arguably the greatest player to ever run on to a gaelic football pitch.

It was far from a repeat of the unmerciful mauling endured by Mayo's Padraig O'Hora at Clifford's hands and feet in last year's League Final.

Indeed in the second half as Kerry seemed to be running out of ideas, they even went old school by lumping the ball in on top of Clifford, with the gesticulating Fossa man at one stage making his displeasure about the poor quality of the delivery abundantly clear after McKaigue had batted away to an Oak Leaf team-mate.

By then, Derry manager Ciaran Meenagh's pre-match conviction that his side were going to shock the 3-1 on favourites was only getting stronger after they had seemingly weathered an post-interval Kingdom storm which had seen the All-Ireland champions cancel out a three-point half-time deficit to draw level at 1-12 to 1-12 by the 48th minute before the Oak Leafers soon moved two up again.

"At that stage it looked as though every time we attacked, we were cutting them apart," the rueful Oak Leaf boss told BBC Sport NI afterwards.

But those opportunities weren't being taken with McKinless denied by Shane Ryan's point-blank save in the 51st minute not long after Paul Murphy had blocked a Niall Toner chance following a goalmouth scramble.

"We tried to create goal chances and went for goal chances. We were here to win the game. It was about really going for it at that stage," added Meenagh.

"When we didn't take those chances, the pendulum was probably going to swing again. When it did they were far more devastating in front of goals. It's gutting."

Asked what had made the difference in the closing stages, Meenagh said he was almost in too much of a "state of shock to be able to articulate my thoughts".

"At the end of the day, we scored three points in the second half and left an awful lot of scores behind us, a lot of turnovers and struggled on our own kickout when it really counted coming down the straight."

Much as Dublin did in the closing stages of their win over Monaghan on Saturday night after misfiring for much of the contest, Kerry's decision to press up on the Odhran Lynch's kickouts in the final minutes saw them pinch possession on three consecutive occasions as the Magherafelt man was forced to go long each time, with all three plays eventually resulting in match-turning Kingdom scores.

"We had to win a couple of his kickouts," said a relieved Jack O'Connor afterwards.

"That was the only way we were going to get momentum. Because if Derry got it off short, you won't see that ball again for three or four minutes."

Derry's shattered morale after being mugged in the closing stages brought back memories of the county's All-Ireland semi-final defeat back in 2001 when Galway fought back from five points down late on to win 1-14 to 1-11 before they went on to comfortably beat Meath in the decider.

After how his players were, Meenagh replied: "They are also devastated. They are gutted.

"We were in a great place at half-time but we expected to be in a good place at half-time.

"We expected to win the game. We were here to win the game. We were confident we were going to win with 60 minutes played and two up and looking like we were going to do the business.

"That's going to take some time to get over."