Junior Hurling League (2A)
Thur. May 2nd

Blackrock 2 – 17 V St.Finbarrs 2 - 21 @ Church Road.​

 

Report:  Roger Ryan

Our Junior Hurlers dropped their first league points when they lost to St.Finbarrs at Church Road on Thursday evening. Following rain throughout the day, the pitch was in good trim and held up well. In a very competitive first half our boys managed to keep ahead until the 30th minute when the Barrs drew level at 6 points each. Dave Garvan then edged us ahead with a goal but that lead was wiped out when the Barrs went on a spree and with 1 - 05 soon went ahead by 5 points 1 - 06 to 1 - 11. James Allen pointed to leave the half time score at 1 - 07 to 1 - 11.

Our scorers in this half were, James Allen 0 - 07, Davis Garvan 1 - 00.

The Barrs had 4 points on the trot before we got our first point of the second half by Eoin Couglan, so they extended their lead to 7 points, 1 – 08 to 1 – 15. Nathan Adams replied to the next point from the Barrs to leave it at 1 – 09 to 1 – 16. That lead was increased to 9 points when the Barrs scored 2 more points, 1 – 09 to 1 – 18. James Allen then swapped scores with the Barrs to bring it to 1 – 10 to 1 – 19. Brian O'Leary and Aenghus O Driscoill were sprung from the bench and made an immediate impression. Brian soon had the ball in the back of the net for our second goal and he promptly followed up with a point to reduce their lead to 5 points, 2 – 11 to 1 – 19. A pointed free by the Barrs was answered by 3 on the trot from Brian O'Leary, Dave Garvan and James Allen to reduce the lead to 4 points, 2 – 13 to 1 - 20. 

Following the introduction of Conor Sweeney, things get even better when Aenghus popped over a point to leave us trailing by just 3 points. The Barrs replied with 2 points and James Allen and Nathan pointed for us to close out the game leaving us still trailing by 4 points. Henry Donnelly just managed to make an appearance before the Ref blew for full time.

The final burst which our boys put in deserved a better result but a lapse of concentration for the closing period of the first and opening of the second half (and the loss of Paddy Lynch due to injury) cost us dearly and that's when the Barrs did the most damage. Our record to date has been great and we'll bounce back again, I've no doubt.

Scorers: James Allen 0 – 10 (4f, 65 ), Brian O'Leary 1 – 02, David Garvan 1 – 01, Nathan Adams 0 – 02, Eoin Coughlan 0 – 01, Aenghus O Driscoill.

Team: Darragh Murphy, Jack O'Brien, Sean Cormack, Dan Linehan, Robert Cregan, Ronan Buckley, Scott O'Sullivan, Kevin Morgan, Eoin Coughlan, Paddy Lynch, James Allen, David Garvan, Peter Cotter, Nathan Adams, Eoin Browne. Subs Used: Brian O'Leary, Conor Sweeney, Aenghus O Driscoill, Henry Donnelly.

Referee: Brian Barrett.