Under 16 Hurlers – Narrow victory over Crumlin

Date of Match: 8th May 2007

Versus: St Vincents Venue: Silverpark

Competition: Under 16 Division 1 League

Management Team: Pat Halpin, Tom Murphy, Daibhi dePaor, Gearóid O’Riain

Match Result
Kilmacud Crokes 3 -08 v Crumlin 2-07

Scorers;
Crokes: Seanie McGrath (1-03 (0-02 f)), Eoin Dalton (1 – 01), Darren McVeigh (0-02), Mathew Kinsella (1-00), Killian Doherty (0-01), Alan Carr (0-01)

Match Report/ Match Highlights:

Under 16 Hurlers – Narrow victory over Crumlin

The first of the mid week games say Crumlin travel over to Silverpark on a dark damp Tuesday evening. The game started ten minutes early and if it hadn’t, the game might not have finished as it got very dark very early due to the hovering black rain clouds.

A great see-saw battle saw Crumlin explode out of the blocks and register two points in the opening minute. Crokes then hit back with a point from a converted Seanie McGrath free, but Crumlin hot back again with another point from a converted 65” before Darren responded with his first point of the evening. Then seven minutes in, Crumlin rocked Croke’s with their first goal, to put them into a four point lead. Crokes responded well, when a minute later, Eoin scored a marvelous goal following some great individual play. Two minutes later he added a point to the Crokes tally and then following some great team work and a great pass from Seanie, Matt scored a great goal. But Crumlin were not finished and finished the half well, with two converted frees, to leave the narrowest margin of a single point between the sides at the half time whistle.

In the second half, Crumlin again opened the stronger and after three minutes had leveled the score. Four minutes later, Killian regained the Crokes lead with a great point following a run from mid field. But Crumlin responded three minutes later with a great individualist goal by their U15 Dublin intercounty star, who soloed in from midfield and left Barry stranded with a pile driver of a shot. Straight from the puck out, Eddie won the ball in midfield and drove the ball into Seanie, who tapped it over the bar to reduced Crumlin’s lead to a point. But Crumlin extended their lead to two points three minutes later with another well taken point. Crumlin seemed to be in command of the match and Croke’s were staring defeat in the face. But, Crokes rallied, the backs denied Crumlin any further scoring opportunities and the forwards upped their game. Seanie started the revival with a converted free in the 18th minute of the second half. Four minutes later, Alan popped up and knocked over a point from the wing to level the scores. Crumlin battled hard and made life very difficult for the Croke’s forwards, but Darren hit over a long range point to regain the lead. On the stroke of full time, Seanie finished the Croke’s scoring a and a fine individual display with a well taken goal. A close run thing, but Crokes had won by four points when the final whistle sounded.

This was a great game to watch. The quality of hurling was very high, in particular the hooking and blocking by both sides was immense. Not a single dirty stroke was pulled during the whole game, a credit to both sets of players and the way the game should be played. To a man, the backs played very well, as did the two midfielders. The next match against An Fianna is expected to be every bit as difficult, as they were recently narrowly defeated by Vincent’s by a solitary point.

Kilmacud Crokes:
Barry Mulligan, Cian O’Brien, Paul Collins, Jack Kelly, Louis Whelan, Bill O’Carroll, Jack Doughan, Eddie O’Byrne, Killian Doherty, Eoin Dalton, Darren McVeigh, Dylan Mulligan, Johnny Brew, Mathew Kinsella, Seanie McGrath,.

Subs: Mark O’Dwyer (replaced Dylan) Alan Carr (replaced Johnny), Peter MacCague, Shane Horan, Mark Lynsky, Keith Hogarty, Brendan Halpin.