Moorefield 0-11 Celbridge 0-09
Favourites Moorefield dug extremely deep in Newbridge to regain the Kildare SFC title despite playing two thirds of the game with just 13 men.
Ross Glavin's side lost ex-Kildare midfielder and team captain Daryl Flynn as well as wing-forward David Whyte to red cards by the 21st minute and also wasted a penalty chance.
But they remarkably never trailed and held on in wet and gloomy conditions for a character-laden win, their first since 2014, following defeat in last year's decider.
It is Moorefield's ninth county title and among their most memorable, given the circumstances, battling against two additional men for the majority of the game.
Free-taker Adam Tyrrell top scored with four points, the same margin that Eanna O'Connor, son of former Kerry senior manager Jack, tallied.
Moorefield's reward is a Leinster club SFC clash with the Offaly or Laois representatives on 12 November.
Celbridge will kick themselves for not taking advantage of the situation and they never got closer than two points to Moorefield during a dogged second-half.
Both sides had their chances early on but Moorefield were much more economical and opened up a 0-03 to 0-01 advantage.
But they shipped those three crushing blows between the 18th and 21st minutes, which threatened to cost them.
First Tyrrell had a penalty saved by Shane McNamara in the Celbridge goal with Mick Konstantin poking away the ball to safety.
Then skipper Flynn was shown a straight red card after an incident that left county man Fergal Conway on the turf.
Moorefield were just coming to terms with that loss when they were reduced to 13 players.
Whyte was also shown a straight red card after clashing with Celbridge and Kildare attacker Paddy Brophy.
Moorefield still led 0-04 to 0-01 at that stage and impressively extended their advantage to five points at half-time when they led by five points, 0-07 to 0-02.
Celbridge left former county defender Hugh McGrillen and Konstantin free in defence but were painfully shot shy up front and couldn't capitalise on Moorefield's indiscipline.
O'Connor, Kevin Murnaghan and Tyrrell closed out the first-half scoring with points for Moorefield who added a point from Eddie Heavey after the restart.
Celbridge brought their greater numbers to bear on the game between the 35th and 42nd minutes when they scored four points in a row.
Three of those came from frees as they ran at Moorefield and forced them to foul, reducing the scoreline to 0-08 to 0-06 approaching the final quarter.
Moorefield didn't flinch, however, and both Tyrrell and O'Connor kicked points at vital stages to keep their noses in front in the closing stages.
Moorefield: T Kinsella; L Healy, M Dempsey, L Callaghan; K Murnaghan (0-01), J Murray, S Healy; D Flynn, A Masterson; D Whyte, E Heavey (0-02), C O'Connor; A Tyrrell (0-04, 0-04f), E O'Connor (0-04, 0-02f, 0-01 45), N Hurley-Lynch.
Subs: R Sweeney for Hurley-Lynch (19), R Houlihan for Healy (41), A Mullins for C O'Connor (49).
Celbridge: S McNamara; M Konstantin, M O'Grady, O Lyons; D McEvoy, H McGrillen, K Flynn (0-01); C Brophy, F Conway; T Archbold, D Hughes (0-03, 0-01f), J Costello; S Harte (0-03, 0-02f), P Brophy (0-01), K Murphy.
Subs: D Corcoran (0-01) for McEvoy (23), M O'Sullivan for Murphy (39), K O'Callaghan for Archbold (51), P Carty for Harte (53).
Referee: N McKenna (Ballyteague).
