SENIOR HURLERS AND FOOTBALLERS WIN IN CHAMPIONSHIP: Our senior footballers and hurlers took the honours in their respective senior championship matches played last week. The footballers advanced to the quarter finals of the Coogan Hardware championships by virtue of a reasonably convincing win – not that it did not have its scary moments – over Kiltegan in the second round replay in Aughrim. If one can have consolation in defeat Kiltegan can take some from the fact that they were short county star Seánie Furlong.
The hurlers would have judged themselves to have put a considerable feather in their caps with their defeat of St Pat’s in the preliminary stages of the championship. Apart from the satisfaction the win per say gave them it also proved a huge pick-me-up after their depression-generating showing in the previous game against Avondale.
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It was a very entertaining game of open honest football that remained very much in the balance up to the last five or six minutes when a trio of unanswered points (Daniel Woods (0-2), Sam Thompson (0-1)) placed the game beyond Kiltegan’s reach. A clip on youtube of the scores during the game attest to its entertainment value being above the ordinary (http://youtu.be/6KVg329LXJE).
The lessons of the drawn game had taught the Éire Óg followers the folly of forecasting the yield from unhatched eggs so they did not read too much into the fact that Greystones had moved ahead 1-3 to 0-1 after 15 minutes. This caution showed itself to be well justified. Kiltegan upped their game, outscored Éire Óg 5 points to 4 in the second quarter and achieved parity, 1-7 to 2-4 eight minutes after the break. At that juncture the game turned very much the seasiders’ way when Sam Thompson scored a spectacular goal, his second. This was a huge set-back for Kiltegan but to their credit they did not relent in their efforts and the game held interest to the very end. Scorers: Darren Hayden and Daniel Woods (0-3 each), Willie O’Hagan (0-4, 0-3 from frees), Daniel Webb (0-2), Sam Thompson (2-2), Darren Quigley (goalie, 0-1).
Iomáint
The hurlers would have judged themselves to have put a considerable feather in their caps with their defeat of St Pat’s in the preliminary stages of the championship. Apart from the satisfaction the win per say gave them it also proved a huge pick-me-up after their depression-generating showing in the previous game against Avondale.
The setting, a beautiful sunny Tuesday evening, a perfectly flat sward of hurling-friendly length, no breeze, in a word, perfect conditions for our most ancient of games. The hurlers showed their appreciation and produced a clean, no quarter-given-game, with an exciting tit-for-tat scoring pattern.
There were 28 scores in all, one goal, so it was difficult to know at any given time who was ahead. However, one could be sure that whichever team it was, it was only in front by a point or two. Three minutes to go, Éire Óg two points down and things not looking great for them, a beautiful cross-field pass finds Anto Byrne on the edge of the large parallelogram. Anto is upended. A penalty! Chester Kelly bends, lifts, and strikes from behind the 20 metre line – no Anthony Nash’s here – and finds the back of the net. Pat’s fight back for the equaliser, the attack breaks down, the ball is cleared upfield where it is collected by James Cranley who directs it delicately between the posts. The accolade of man of the match goes to young Danny Nolan who scored 4 great hard-earned points from play.
