Seniors Keep AHL1 Top Spot

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On Saturday evening, 9th July 2011, the Crokes Senior team made the long journey across town to Portmarnock to face Naomh Mearnóg in round 10 of the Senior League, knowing that nothing less than a victory was required to keep their title ambitions intact and they left the ground 90 minutes later having just managed to scrape through with a two point win.


The first half was a tight affair with both sides responsible for some wayward shooting.  At half time, Crokes led by 8 points to 5 points, with Aodhan de Paor and James Burke contributing 2 points each while Alex Pilkington, Jude Sweeney, Sean Murphy and Captain Shane O'Rorke adding one point a piece.


Crokes started the second half strongly and streaked into a 10 point lead within 11 minutes with a converted free from Rob O'Loughlin and 2 converted frees by Aodhan, while Alex added another point to his tally and Sean Murphy scored a great goal.  However, the next 10 minutes was a scrappy affair with neither side registering a score.  It was Naomh Mearnóg who then broke the deadlock and scored a goal and two points to narrow their deficit to 5 points.  Aodhan then stretched the Crokes lead again with another well taken free before Mearnóg's scored their last point of the match to reduce the margin to 5 points.  Then in the dying seconds of added time, Mearnóg's pounced and scored a goal to reduce the margin to 2 points.  At the final whistle, Crokes had a winning score of 1-13 to 2-08.


A narrow win, but a win none the less and keeps Crokes at the top of the league, but with 4 other teams in contention (all with games in hand), the last game against Lucan is a must win encounter.  There were 4 Senior debuts for Crokes, with Sean Murphy and Alex Pilkington starting the game in the two corner forward spots and Caolan Conway coming on in the forward line in the second half while Emmet Doherty came in at wing back as in the second half. All four acquitted themselves well and did not look out of place in the Senior ranks.


For pictures by Dara O’Gallchobhair see HERE

 

Pat Halpin

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