Where We Stand: Kilkenny league and cup competitions reach crunch
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As featured in the soccer section of the Kilkenny People
It was another significant weekend in the Kilkenny & District League with promotion to the St Canice’s Credit Union Premier Division and the finalists of the McCalmont Cup decided.
- Castlewarren Celtic 3, East End United 2: After a dramatic season in Division One of the Kilkenny and District League, it took a five-goal thriller on the Fairgreen on Saturday evening to determine who would take the coveted second promotion spot in the division.
Freebooters B coasted to promotion as champions with 12 wins and eight points to spare.
However, East End United (second) and Castlewarren Celtic (third) were deadlocked on 30 points apiece after the regular season, with both winning their respective away games against one another.
Glued together for much of the contest, as they had been for much of the domestic season, it took until the 85th minute to ultimately determine who would be a Premier Division club in 2026.
The achievement was greeted with much joy and relief by the victors who had fallen agonisingly short in recent seasons.
The killer blow was struck by Kevin Kenny, who combined well with Billy Wall to hit the target for the seventh time this season.
At half-time, it was the Bennettsbridge outfit who headed the scoreboard through Gearoid Kent. The 22-year-old converted a fifth-minute penalty, passing goalkeeper Alan Coleman to put the smallest of margins between the sides.
Castlewarren Celtic hit back eight minutes into the second half courtesy of Colm Dowling, whose screamer sparked the game into life.
Castlewarren Celtic built on that momentum and hit the front on the 70th minute through Aaron Butler, and would have felt after years of heartbreak that they had one foot in next season’s top tier. But, it wasn’t to be that simple…
East End, who had already defeated their opponents twice earlier this season in both league and cup competition, responded brilliantly to falling behind by levelling proceedings just five minutes later. With the pressure mounting and the game hanging finely in the balance, Bill Nolan stepped up in the 75th minute to fire home the equaliser and breathe fresh life into his side’s challenge. The goal set up a grandstand finish, with both teams pushing desperately for a decisive winner as the tension inside the ground continued to rise.
As both teams tired in an energy-sapping final 15 minutes, both teams emptied their bench in a bid to win the game, which had been dubbed the €1000 game in local soccer, akin to the English Championship Play-Off.
Stand up, Kevin Kenny, who, in his 12th appearance of the season, finally found the moment that separated two clubs who had gone neck and neck for much of the campaign. With tension rising and little to divide the sides after months of battling for promotion, Kenny produced the decisive contribution when it mattered most, scoring the goal that ultimately secured promotion and etched his name into the club’s season story. It was a strike that not only settled a fiercely contested race, but also rewarded the persistence and determination shown by the squad on the night.
Castlewarren Celtic and East End will kick off their new seasons in August in the St Canice’s Credit Union Premier Division and Division One, respectively.
- Evergreen 3, Ormonde Villa 2: The biggest giant-killing story of the McCalmont Cup this season so very nearly came true in Derdimus on Sunday morning as Premier Division titans Evergreen had to battle back from two goals down to save their blushes.
It was an emotional occasion for Villa who, despite the defeat, did their club proud as they paid tribute to club stalwart Jamsey Falsey, who sadly passed away earlier this week.
On the field, both sides entered Sunday’s last four clash with momentum on their side.
Daniel O’Driscoll's men, bolstered by the availability of some of their key players, secured promotion to Division 1 last month after digging their way out of Kilkenny’s third tier.
For Evergreen, well, little changed in 2025/26, with their unrivalled consistency levels domestically securing a ninth league title in a row without dropping a single point.
Sunday was far from a stroll in the park for the defending Leinster Junior Cup champions, though, and they faced a two-goal deficit by the 27th minute.
Team top-scorer Owen Wall scored from the penalty spot on the 13th minute before O’Loughlin Gaels team-mates on the hurling field combined on the Derdimus turf just over 20 minutes later. Jamie Ryan delivered the killer pass to Cian Loy, who netted for the 11th time in all competitions this season.
However, the Ormonde Villa fairytale that many neutral observers were hoping for slowly drifted away and back to reality.
Brace
Dara Keane scored the first of his brace four minutes before the half-time break to narrow the margin heading into the second period.
Gary Maher’s side levelled proceedings 11 minutes into the new half as South Kilkenny and the city teamed up impeccably. Glenmore’s Ethan Phelan delivered the pass, and Mikey Clifford, formerly of Freebooters, struck a bullet of a strike to the net (2-2).
On another day, the dream could have become reality if Owen Wall had converted a gilt-edge chance, but on Sunday, it would be the champions who showed their mettle. Keane’s second goal of the day proved to be the clinching goal to secure passage to the final for Evergreen.
- Freebooters 1, Fort Rangers 0: In a season where there was no more than an odd goal between the pair, Freebooters and Fort Rangers lived up to that reputation once again on Sunday afternoon in the day’s second McCalmont Cup semi-final.
Unlike their two league meetings, where Fort Rangers took the spoils, it was the Freebooters men who got the all-important victory, with their ability to showdown the league’s top scorer Emmet Nugent while playing their own attractive style of football, earning them the highly sought-after cup final spot.
Joe Banville was highly influential in attack throughout the 90 minutes, setting up chances for Cian Franey, Hamza El Harrak, amongst others, with 18-year-old Charlie Sheehan in the Fort Rangers goal standing tall.
However, the young keeper was eventually denied as man of the match Joe Banville delivered a sweet pass across the Fort Rangers box for substitute Owen Hanney to tap home just 10 minutes after his introduction.
“I think going forward, we were great but I think we need to give credit to the defence too, they were unbelievable,” Banville told Kilkenny People Sport.
“At the start of the second half we probably lost our way a bit but I think we slowly came back into it and the goal look, it was a bit of luck, I put it across the box and it took a deflection, Owen Hanney, as all strikers should do, was on hand with a little toe poke. That’s all you need – and that’s what wins games.”