Senior Team improve to beat Lucan

Body

At 6.30 pm on Saturday 24th June 2006 the faith of the most optimistic Crokes hurling fan was stretched to the extremes.  A limp first half performance had yielded just three scores as KC trailed hosts Lucan 1-11 to 2-1 in this SHL clash.  Lucan, hurling with purpose and forcefulness were good for their lead with Dublin under 21 star O’Reilly causing all sorts of trouble at half forward ably supported by his midfielders and half backs who were well on top.

Certain realities were spelt out at half time and to their credit it was a different Crokes team we saw in the second half.  Where previously there had been aimlessness, poor decision making and an unwillingness to take responsibility we now saw composure, calm determination and movement with purpose.  An early goal helped settle matters but it was by no means one way traffic as Lucan, especially in the early stages of the second half almost invariably responded to each Crokes score with one of their own.  It was well over twenty minutes into the half before Crokes took the lead for the first time and even then Lucan came back to level.  However more and more Crokes got on top and with time nearly up went into a two point lead which they then extended, with two more overs, to four as the game went into its fourth minute of injury time.  On a final scoreline of 5-10 to 1-18 there were many positives for Crokes to take from this game, none more so than the impressive manner in which the team responded to its ominous half time situation, a feat a lesser team would have not even attempted..

Team

Padraic Dempsey, Fergus Garvey, Dave Mahony, Cormac de Frein, Fionan Moriarty, Declan Walsh, Conor O’Connor, Hugh Gannon, James Burke, Donal McGovern, Damien Byrne, Niall Murphy, Damian Walsh , Brian Motherwway, Fergal Armstrong.  Subs: Adrian Grogan for Cormac de Frein, Shane O’Rorke for Fionan Moriarty, Davy Baker for Fergus Garvey

Tagging