U14 beat Ballinteer in great game, 26 May 2007

Under 14 Div 1 League v Ballinteer St John's, Silverpark, 26 May 2007
 


Match Report / Match Highlights:

Under 14 Hurlers – Splendid victory over Ballinteer - sweet revenge for the loss in our first League Match of the Season.

Ballinteer travelled for a match at 3.30 pm in Silverpark on a day with sunny intervals and dark rain clouds threatening. We were disappointed that Ballinteer were unable to accommodate an earlier start to facilitate Ciaran Hynes who was attending his daughter's First Communion; this was another reason to strive to win the match.

A great see-saw battle for the first 5 minutes before Ballinteer registered the first score. Crokes then hit back with a point from Barry O'Farrell after a neat turn off his man. Alex Pilkington then scored a second point some minutes later. Crokes were very dominant over the first 10 minutes and had a few misses but it was good to create opportunities. After about 10 minutes, Ballinteer got a free about 65 yards out on the right wing. The free strike did not have the distance and as the ball dropped short in towards the goalmouth, we failed to bat it away resulting in Croke’s being rocked by a lucky goal. It was a blow, so early in the match and with their tails up, Ballinteer added another point after a few more minutes. For the rest of the first half Crokes fought gamely but failed to put the numerous opportunities between the posts. While both sides fought hard for possession and Crokes created most of the scoring chances, Ballinteer added a further point in the first half, to go in at the interval leading by 4 points with the score at 1-3 to 0-2. A disappointing score, as overall we were the more dominant team. Our backs fought hard to repel any attacks with Sean Boyd at full-back outplaying his man. Conall O'Neill and Niall Hanley at corner-back proved their worth with good clearances. We failed however to capitalise with scores from our possession, before the half time whistle.

Whatever Pat Fenlon said at half-time, in the second half, Crokes rallied. Jack O'Brien popped over a point early on followed a few minutes later by Alex Pilkington with another 2 points. This closed the gap to one point and all the Crokes players worked hard towards leveling the score. Alex delivered this with a well-taken free from about 50 yards out followed by another point from a free, a few minutes later. Crokes were dominating at this stage and managed to gain possession from some of the puckouts where the half-backs often batted down the ball and Alex Pilkington or John Huban in midfield cleaned up.
Ballinteer had already moved a few players around since the re-start, in an effort to get a grip on the game but to no avail. After 15 minutes, Jack O'Brien netted after a run from midfield by Andrew McEvoy. While we led 1-7 to 1-3 at this stage, there was still plenty of time for Ballinteer to hit back. Now our backs played a great part in repelling any of the Ballinteer attacks with Emmet O'Doherty excelling. While we gave away 2 frees over the next few minutes as Ballinteer fought hard to register their first score of the 2nd half, only one was struck successfully.Crokes continued to extend their their lead with more well taken points from Jamie Clinton, Caolan Murphy, Andrew McEvoy and another converted free from Alex Pilkington. Crokes were well in command of the match over the last 10 minutes and the Ballinteer shuffling of players still made no difference. We ensured that they only registered a solitary point in the 2nd half. Crokes had won by seven points when the final whistle sounded.

This was a good game to watch. The quality of hurling was not always pretty, but it was effective. Plenty of hooking and blocking by both sides. Crokes backs batted down high balls well and loose ball was picked up.We had a number of good hand passing moves and players looking out for each other. While there were the usual few fouls it was not a dirty game and a credit to both sets of players. Every one of the backs played very well, as did the two midfielders. All the forwards contributed as can be seen from the various scores and the others provided good support.

Scorers:
Crokes: Barry O'Farrell(0-1),Caolan Murphy (0-1),Jamie Clinton (0-1), Jack O'Brien (1-1), Andrew McEvoy (0-1) Alex Pilkington (0-06/0-3f).

Squad:
P Tighe, C O'Neill, S Boyd, N Hanley, C Delaney, O O'Carroll, E O'Doherty, J Huban, A Pilkington, J Clinton, A Cullinane, B O'Farrell, A McEvoy, K Finn, J O'Brien, K Kelly, C McGabhann, C Murphy, S Moran.
Injured/Unavailable: J Cassidy, F Motherway, N Carr, D Daly, J Dineen, Simon Lyons.

Management Team: Ciaran Hynes, Pat Fenlon, Mick Hynes, Liam O'Carroll