In a real game of two halves, Astoria Gaels used a closing salvo of 1-3 to 0-2 points to get the victory in this intermediate football knockout contest.

The game had an extremely slow start, with just five points in the first half hour, but the pace quickened in the second half.

When crunch time arrived, Sean Kelly and John Kieveney stepped up and helped the Queens side over the end line four points ahead.

In a low scoring first half, Astoria went in to the break ahead 0-3 to 0-2. Kieveney and Kelly had their opening two points in the first 12 minutes, but it took them a full 12 before they had their third.

At that time Brooklyn had their first score of the outing, a Darren Moore effort, but they had to wait until the final minutes before they had their second.

By this time Astoria had added their third and also had a bona-fide goal chance when Eoghan Kyne soloed up the left wing and set Nester Allen free to the left of the goal. The experienced Allen blasted wide from 14 yards out.

Astoria did add to their total with two points to open the second half, with the second a Ray Carroll effort after Brendan Lee made a good stop on Kelly.

The combination side had three of the next four scores as the second half continued. Moore had all three scores as he was proving in his second game of the day to be an extreme handful.

Liam Farrell and Eamon Conlon swapped scores before Farrell was denied by Lee in the Brooklyn goal with 16 minutes gone. Kelly was the next one to be denied, this time by the woodwork as Astoria were trying for the three pointer when they would have been wiser to take their points.

Again, the sides swapped points before the winners finally got the big breakthrough. It came when a long ball out from the back by Sean Kelly found Seamus Kelly. He intelligently found Justin O’Halloran in front of goal, and the Astoria player/manager fired to the net.

The Kellys added points for the Gaels to give the side a six point advantage. Brooklyn kept battling, however, and they had the last two points of the game to narrow the gap a little, although they never looked like getting the goal they so badly needed.

The winners will be delighted to be heading to the playoffs of this competition with a win. Eoghan Kyne, Ray Carroll -- who had a very positive second half -- Sean Kelly, John Kieveney -- who covered a lot of ground -- and Liam Farrell all impressed.
Brendan Lee, Kevin O’Callaghan, Declan McAleer and the brilliant Darren Moore were the best of the B/LI side.

Astoria Gaels: 1 Pa Ryan, 2 Eoghan Kyne, 4 Alan Foley, 5 Ray Carroll (0-1), 6 Sam Yore, 7 Ronan Rogers, 8 Sean Kelly (0-4), 9 Derek McKenna, 10 John Kieveney (0-2), 11 Justin O’Halloran (1-1), 12 Seamus Kelly (0-1), 13 Liam Farrell (0-2), 15 Nester Allen.

Brooklyn/Long Island: 1 Brendan Lee, 2 Eamon Conlon (0-1), 4 Kevin O’Callaghan, 5 Martin Hatzer, 6 Tom O’Boyle, 7 Tom O’Brien, 8 Gary Moore, 9 Paddy Loughran, 10 Richie Beirne (0-1), 11 Declan McAleer (0-1), 12 Kieran O’Flynn, 13 Darren Moore (0-6), 15 Paul Waldron.
Man of the match: John Kieveney (Astoria Gaels).
Referee: Alan Hearty.