EVEN before the throw-in Sunday's Kehoe Cup quarter-final at the Carlow IT grounds had provided a talking point. Guarding the net for the home side was Kilkenny's All-Star goalkeeper PJ Ryan, notable enough in itself; but by donning a white hurling helmet, complete with facial guard, the Fenians Johnstown clubman getting his first experience of the protective gear in a competitive fixture.

Supporters of the black and amber will be glad to hear that Ryan brought off one great save from behind the faceguard, last years All-Ireland final man of the match displaying tremendous reflexes when twisting and stretching to get his stick to a ball that had taken a wicked deflection inside the 13m line.

That save came in the 65th minute, denying substitute Brendan Kelly the lead goal. Ten minutes earlier Ryan had been powerless to prevent lively corner-forward John Coyne bagging a good goal, the No 15 whipping a first time shot to the town end rigging from the edge of the small square after a rollicking Gerry Fallon run and cross had fashioned the opening.

Coyne's goal tied the sides at 1-9 apiece, the sixth time the sides were level and they were to be all-square three more times before the finish, the last such instance in the 68th minute when Coyne picked off a tidy point from play.

With extra-time looming, a restructured Carlow IT outfit who now featured Carlow Ring Cup All-Star Shane Kavanagh at fullback and his inter-county colleague Dessie Shaw at centre-half-back put in a devastating finishing burst.

A rousing Kavanagh clearance sank into the hand of the very impressive Neil Foyle who caught had caught a lot of sky ball earlier.

The Laois man quickly found full-forward Mark Egan who in turn freed Ross Young who shot Carlow in front.

It was an inspirational team-score and was quickly followed by another brace of points, Foyle converting a close range free, Young landing the clincher from mid-distance as the match drifted into 'lost-time'.

Apart from those late flurry of points, the most important Carlow IT score was their lone goal, a beautifully constructed 23rd minute score which owed its origin to a clever angled cross-field ball from left half back Danny Kenny which was brilliantly caught on the Green Road wing by the white helmeted Foyle. Foyle cut in from the right and passed inside to alert full-forward Mark Egan who, before he could gain secure possession, immediately had the Roscommon full-back and goalkeeper for tackling company. The Offaly No 14 was sent crashing to the ground but had managed to flick the sliotar, which had popped up in the air, into the unguarded net. That gave the home side the lead for the first time since the third minute when Neil Foyle had opened the scoring. A neat point from Enda Fitzpatrick, a brother of Kilkenny's 'Cha', gave the IT a three point advantage ten minutes shy of the break but come half-time the sides were all square at 14 to 0-7, Roscommon reeling off three points in succession courtesy of David Dolan (a brace of frees) and Declan Nolan.

Though Dolan inched Roscommon in front three minutes into the new half, Carlow IT outscored the Connacht visitors 0-5 to 0-2 over the course of the third quarter before the decisive action described earlier unfolded.

Carlow IT now face a busy schedule, hosting GMIT (Galway Mayo Institute of Technology) in the opening round of the Ryan Cup at the IT Grounds on Thursday (throw-in 2pm), playing Westmeath away in the Kehoe Cup semi-final next week-end, then tackling Queens Belfast a few days later in the second round of the 'Ryan'.

- LEO MCGOUGH