Junior C3’s lose to Civil Service

Posted on

Once again Crokes feel behind to early goals ultimately destroying any hopes of getting the result they desperately need to get their season back on track. Despite the bad weather conditions there was strong squad turnout with the Juniors again showing their keenness and desire to get the season moving with 19 players available for selection.

 

The game opened as a tight affair but both sides seemingly even matched. Although sporting a younger squad than their opponents it was Crokes lack of fitness, match practice and, most notably, experience that cost them the result. Within 15 mins of the start they were three goals down. This was mainly as a result of old wise heads on the part of the Civil Service full forward line and a lack of communication and tracking back on the side of the Crokes defensive unit. The goals were far from spectacular however, as in each case the Crokes full back line were left exposed as Civil Services tapped in three easy goals from close range.

 

Crokes fought back with an easy goal of their own as Ian O’Keeffe fired in a long ball into Barry Gavigan in the full forward position. It managed to deflect off the full forward and dribble past a badly positioned goalkeeper into the empty net.

 

They added two more fine points from Padraig Doheny and Hugh Liston before the interval to leave the score standing at 3 – 3 to 1 – 2 at half time with Crokes trailing by 10 points.

 

Crokes management rang the changes at half time replacing the wing back Fearghal O’Connor with John McCarthy and corner bank John Galvin with John Egan. Numerous positional changes were also made in an attempt to steady the ship with Sean McDermott moving from midfield to full back, Ronan Egan replacing John Galvin as corner back and Ian O’Keeffe moving into midfield with John Egan taking up the wing forward position. They changes worked well as Crokes got to grips with the Civil Service attack and the full back line became dominant and cleared good ball. The wing backs and midfield managed to exert a bit more control and feed good ball into the forwards. Unfortunately the Crokes dominance towards the end of the game resulted in only two scores with a goal knocked in by Tom Kenny, who replaced Fred Meiyer in the corner and a point knocked over from a free by Ian O’Keeffe.

 

Again Crokes suffered a disappointing defeat with a final score of 4 – 5 to 2 – 3, a loss of 8 points. A leaky defence and the concession of easy goals cost them on a day they would have been expecting to get a result. 

 

The team in full on the day was:

 

  1. Tom McIntyre
  2. Paul Byrne
  3. Ronan Egan
  4. John Galvin
  5. Fearghal O’Connor
  6. Connor Kelly
  7. Niall McIntyre
  8. Padraig Doheny
  9. Sean McDermott
  10. Ian O’Keeffe
  11. Hugh Liston
  12. Shane O’Keeffe
  13. Declan Morris
  14. Barry Gavigan
  15. Fred Meiyer

Replacements were:

  1. John McCarty on for 5. Fearghal O’Connor at half time
  2. John Egan on for 4. John Galvin at half time
  3. Tom Kenny on for 15. Fred Meiyer during the second half.
Hurling.