Under 15 Hurlers – Battle hard to secure Championship Semi Final Place.
Date of Match: 9th May 2006
Versus: Naomh Fionnbarra Venue: Pairc de Burca
Competition: Under 15 Division 1 Championship Round Robin 3
Management Team: Pat Halpin, Tom Murphy, Daibhi dePaor, Fionan Moriarty
Match Result
Crokes 4 - 10 v Naomh Fionnbarra 3 - 02
Scorers;
Crokes: Seanie McGrath (2-02 (0-02 f)), Naomhan Reardon (1 – 02), Eoin Dalton (0 – 04), Darren McVeigh (1 – 00) & Jamie O’Sullivan (0 – 02)
Match Report/ Match Highlights:
Under 15 Hurlers – Battle hard to secure Championship Semi Final Place.
On a lovely summers evening down in Pairc de Burca, the Crokes Under 15 hurlers continued their Under 15 Championship campaign with a hard fought victory over a well drilled Naomh Fionnbarra and have guaranteed a home venue in next August’s semi final.
With little or no breeze, Crokes burst into the match with a Seanie McGrath after 20 seconds, Eddie won the throw in and hit a long ball to Seanie on the edge of the square, who caught it, turned and burst the back of the net. However, Finbarrs were up for this match and a minute later, hit back with a converted long range free. Two minutes later, Eoin received a good pass from Seanie and calmly slotted the ball over the bar. Despite all the possession Crokes had, the Finbarrs backs were playing well and Finbarrs drew level in the 13th minute, when a long clearance found an unmarked forward and he buried the ball into the back of the net. Crokes fought back and Jamie took his first point of the game with a great long range effort in the 16th minute and a minute later after a well worked ball from Naomhan, Seanie added another goal to his tally. However, Finbarrs battled on and a minute later narrowed the lead to the bare minimum when they score another good goal. In a tense final first half 12 minutes, the game was tight and little was being given away by either side, however, Jamie extended the lead to two points with another good point in the 19th minute and in the 24th minute, Seanie converted a free to extend the lead to three points. The half ended with Crokes leading by three points. Crokes were not playing well, they were giving Finbarrs too much respect, Crokes needed to up the pace in the second half or else they’d be looking staring defeat in the face.
In the second half, Crokes again opened brightly; Eoin scored another point in the 2nd minute. Finbarrs immediately hit back with another long range free. Crokes then extended their lead with three points in two minutes. Eoin scored the first in the 7th minute, having received a good pass from Jamie, Naomhan then added his name to the scoresheet with his first point and thirty seconds later, had another, after Eddie won the puck out and passed a great ball into him. However, Finbarrs were not yet finished and scored another goal in the twelfth minute, to narrow Croke’s lead to three points. Four minutes later it was Crokes who grabbed the game by the scruff of the next and Darren took his first score of the day when he latched onto a loose ball just outside the square and scored a well taken goal. Two minutes later, Eoin scored another fine point, having received a good pass from Paul. Five minutes later, Seanie converted another free and Naomhan finished off the scoring with a good goal in the 33rd minute. During this 15-minute spell, the Finbarrs keeper made a number of good saves to deny, Naomhan, Eoin, Jamie and Murph from added to the Crokes score.
In the end Crokes ran out winners with a 4-10 to 3-02 margin. A keenly contested tight game, Finbarrs came out with a well-drilled game plan, which they implemented with skill and vision and caused Crokes problems. Not the best game we have played this year, but in the end a very good battling performance in the second half. Plenty of work to do before the next two league games on the 25th & 27th of June.
The next outing is against St Kevins in the league on the 25th June ’06. Kevins are another team doing very well, they are unbeaten so far in the Championship & if they get a result against Cuala, they will qualify for the semi finals.
Kilmacud Crokes:
Barry Mulligan, Peter McCague, Jack Kelly, Jack Doughan, Paul Collins, Bill O’Carroll, Alan Carr, Matthew Kinsella, Eddie O’Byrne, Eoin Dalton, Naomhan Reardon, Darren McVeigh, Sean Murphy, Jamie O’Sullivan, Seanie McGrath.
Subs: Johnny Brew for Darren McVeigh in 40th minute, Cian O’Brien for Jack Doughan in 42nd minute, Hugh Byrne for Seanie McGrath in 53rd minute.
Unavailable: - Killian Doherty & Mark O’Dwyer.
Unfortunately the Under 15 B team suffered a narrow defeat to O’Tooles out in Coolock on Sunday and their Championship run is now over. Hard luck to Gerry, Seamus, Michael and the team.