The senior hurlers picked up their first points of the league campaign with a well-fought and enthralling win over Derry side, Na Magha at Páirc Mhic Dháibhéid.
We set out our stall early on with points from Colm McKee, Stephen McGivern (0-2) and Marcas Toner; however, our lead was short-lived as the Derry men struck back with 1-1 to level the game. Don Whelan picked up two nice points from converted frees but Na Magha reduced the deficit to a single point. Our response was excellent with points from Stephen McGivern (0-2), Don Whelan (0-2), one from possession following a pin point side line cut from Deaglan Mooney out on the right and the second from a 65, and Peter Carleton, after a good spell of possession hurling. Stephen McGivern added another point following a good puck out from Sean Smith to Marcas Toner who laid the pass off for him to finish and when Oskar Deevy found the net, we held a deserved nine-point advantage. A pointed Na Magha free brought the first half scoring to a conclusion with the score 1-11 to 1-3 in our favour.
The first score of the second half came after 4 minutes as Na Magha started to fight their way back into the game. They tagged on three further points (2f) to reduce our lead to four, and it was all hands to the pump as we struggled to contain the Na Magha resurgence. The defence regrouped, with Odhran Gorman, Michael Rowntree and Ruairi McIlroy in the full back line re asserting their dominance with the halfback line of Jamie McNally, Jay Park and Antoin McLaughlin providing good outlet opportunities and the link to the forwards. Don Whelan steadied things with a point following a wayward Na Magha clearance. Colm McKee then launched the sliotar into the Na Magha square and while Thomas Toland made an effort to pull on it, it appeared the flight of the sliotar deceived everyone and it ended up in the net. Both teams traded further points with Don Whelan on the mark again and Marcas Toner striking a nice effort on the run to restore our eight point advantage.
Na Magha came back with another onslaught reducing the lead to four and with the clock, moving into injury time struck their third goal of the game to make it a one-point game. We took possession of the all-important puck out, won a free and as soon as it was taken the referee called time to proceedings with us winning by the minimum 2-14 to 3-10 in a pulsating game.
Click here for photos of the game.
Scorers: Colm McKee 1-1, Stephen McGivern 0-4, Marcas Toner 0-2, Don Whelan 0-6, Peter Carleton 0-1, Oskar Deevy 1-0
