This was a rousing encounter with no quarter given, which went right to the wire when a last gasp goal gave us a share of the spoils.
The opening point of the game went to Lamh Dhearg from a close in free before Marcas Toner opened our account with a point following good work from Alan Rainey in defence. Both teams then matched each other, point for point as Lamh Dhearg tagged on 0-4 (0-3f) while Don Whelan, Stephen McGivern, Marcas Toner and Anton McLaughlin were all on the mark to tie the scores at 0-5 apiece. Don Whelan then edged us into the lead as he converted a long range free after a foul on Anton McLaughlin. Another Marcas Toner point from the left sideline extended our advantage but Lamh Dhearg replied with a point to reduce the deficit to the minimum. We finished the half well and another two points from Don Whelan gave us a half time lead 0-9 to 0-6.
We picked up the tempo on the restart and the sliotar ended up in the Lamh Dhearg net, with several players claiming they got the final touch. Marcas Toner clipped over another 2 points giving us a commanding 8-point advantage. However, we then lost the services of Thomas Maguire who received a second yellow and this seemed to give the Hannahstown side renewed impetus. We were guilty of conceding frees in scoring positions and were duly punished as Lamh Dhearg chipped away at the lead to reduce the deficit to a single point. Don Whelan then pointed but another brace of pointed frees from Lamh Dhearg levelled the game and when they blasted the sliotar to the net it looked like they had snatched an unlikely victory. Credit to our lads for battling away and we were rewarded with a free in the dying seconds around 55 metres out. Don Whelan stepped up and struck a head high delivery goal wards, which somehow deceived everyone, and the sliotar found the back of the net. As the Lamh Dhearg keeper pucked the sliotar out, the referee called time to proceedings with the final score 2-12 to 1-15.
This was definitely a game that got away from us, we were in a commanding position but gave away too many frees and were made to pay as 0-11 of the Lamh Dhearg scores came from frees.
Click here for photos of the game.
Scorers: Marcas Toner 0-5, Don Whelan 1-5, Stephen McGivern 0-1, Anton McLaughlin 0-1, An other 1-0
