St. Patricks GAA

St. Patrick’s Just Shade It

St. Patrick’s Gaels 1-10

Fethard 1-08

On Saturday last St. Patrick’s Gaels just about managed a victory over Fethard in this South U21 B Hurling semi-final played in Monroe.

After misses and wides from both sides Robert McCormack pointed a St. Patrick’s free and Fethard got off the mark with a point from the left wing by Kieran Ryan. Both sides were guilty of wides before Enda Fogarty took a pass and found himself unmarked. After a short solo run Enda pointed for the Gaels. More wides followed with St. Patrick’s being the more guilty. Robert McCormack pointed another free at the quarter hour mark.

Tony O’Brien and Damien Barry followed up with points for the gaels and Robert McCormack pointed a 65 to extend their lead further. A melee in the goalmouth ended with a Fethard goal from close range by Aaron O’Donovan. This was followed by a Fethard point from a free by Denis Tobin. Tony O’Brien got the final point of the first half to leave the half time score 0-07 to 1-02 in favour of St. Patrick’s Gaels (14 St. Patrick’s men and Enda Fogarty from Ballyneale)

The second half began with Fethard controlling most of the exchanges and the added 2 points by County Minor Eoin O’Connell from a ’65 and a free.

Eoin O’Connell pointed another Fethard free before they were reduced to 14 men. The Gaels followed with three more wides and a goal by Tony O’Brien. Eoin O’Connell pointed a Fethard free. Tony O’Brien and Chris Sheehan exchanged points and the Gaels again were guilty of wides before Damien Barry steadied the ship with a point for the Gaels.

The Gaels got the late goal having missed 3 or 4 earlier chances and deserved their victory. However they will have to be much more clinical in their finishing if they are to go one step further than last year and collect the silverware. In defence they can thank Colm Dunne and Patrick Moroney, as well as the midfield of Shane Gorey and Neil Gleeson while in attack Enda Fogarty, Tony O’Brien and Damien Barry threatened most.

For Fethard the defence must take a lot of credit for denying the Gaels victory by a much greater margin as they harassed at every opportunity, none more so than Declan Doyle and Dean Tobin. At midfield Eoin O’Connell showed why he was recognised by the County Minor selectors and in attack Chris Sheehan again gave us some glimpses to show he is still capable of producing the form of the great player he was in his juvenile days.

St. Patrick’s Gaels: John Moroney, Thomas Hayes, Colm Dunne, Aarron Cronin, Patrick Moroney, Richard Needham, Stuart Broderick, Neil Gleeson, Shane Gorey, Robert McCormack, Enda Fogarty, Keelan O’Neill, Marcus O’Halloran, Tony O’Brien, Damien Barry.

Subs: Jason Hayes for Marcus O’Halloran; Mark Fitzgerald and Paul Tierney.

Fethard: J.P. McGrath, Gavin Fitzgerald, Declan Doyle, Keith O’Connell, James Kelly, Dean Tobin, Niall Hayes, Eoin O’Connell, Peter Gough, Aaron O’Connor, Chris Sheehan, Aaron O’Donovan, Matthew Fitzgerald, Tom Gilpin, Kieran Ryan.

Referee: Martin Doyle, Ardfinnan

The Nationalist (Thursday Sept. 24^th 2009)

This entry was posted on September 26, 2009 at 5:40 pm and is filed under Hurling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.