The senior hurlers provided a shock result in this junior championship quarter final when accounting for a team from a higher division and if truth be told the margin of victory does not reflect how good our overall performance was throughout the game.
Lamh Dhearg were quickly on the scoreboard with a pointed free from Adam Murray, after 20 seconds, and he quickly followed with his second pointed free from out on the right side to extend the Lamhs lead. It took us until the 10th minute to register our first score, Donn Whelan took a sideline cut into the square and when the sliotar broke, Marcas Toner lashed to the net to put us in front. Lamh Dhearg responded with another Murray pointed free and then their first point from play. Deaglan Mooney then struck a great point on his left side, over his shoulder from 65 metres but the Hannahstown men replied with another Murray free from 20 metres and a brace of points from Daniel Murray and Calum Fegan to lead by three.
From this point we stamped our authority on the game with points from Donn Whelan, and two from Colm McKee to tie the game. A long-range Donn Whelan pointed free then edged us back in front. Adam Murray then took a short free to the on-running Gerard Smyth who split the posts to level the game again. We struck our second goal of the game in the 28th minute when Anthony Rowntree took possession of the sliotar, rounded the defender, raced towards the goal before despatching a rocket to the net. The final point of the half came from nice work from Marcas Toner to send us in at the break with a 2-06-0-08 lead.
We extended our lead in the second half with two points from Donn Whelan, one coming after great work by Michael Rowntree to gain possession from a ruck. It was Lamh Dhearg who gained some momentum as they reeled off 5 unanswered points from Boyd, Finnegan (0-2) and Murray (0-2) to leave the minimum between the sides with 10 minutes left on the clock. Donn Whelan converted with a pointed free before we got our third goal of the game, the sliotar again was played in around the square and when the Lamh Dhearg defence failed to clear Anthony Rowntree got the resulting flick to the net to put us 5 in front.
Donn Whelan stretched our advantage with another brace of points, the first from a free and the second a well-executed effort while under pressure. With three minutes left on the clock the game looked over but in somewhat confusing circumstances Lamh Dhearg were given a lifeline when an innocuous challenge in our square was deemed worthy of a penalty by the referee and was duly dispatched to the net by Mark Finnegan. We were then placed on the backfoot when goalkeeper Gearoid Cosgrove’s puck out went straight to Gerard Smyth who blasted to the net to leave us only a point in front.
At this stage we could have capitulated, but we stood firm and showed our true metal and actually played with great composure given the setbacks. Further points from Donn Whelan (free) and Chris Gallagher put the icing on the cake, giving us a much-deserved win 3-13 to 2-13.
Click here for pictures of the game.
Scorers: Donn Whelan 0-8, Anthony Rowntree 2-0, M Toner 1-1, Colm McKee 0-2, Deaglan Mooney 0-1, and Chris Gallagher 0-1
