| St. Laurence's 1-11 Sallins 0-9 |
Report:
First silverware for St Laurence’s Junior Hurling
St Laurence’s put in a fantastic team performance against Sallins to claim their first junior hurling success since the foundation of the hurling club four years ago. The game was played in fine sporting manner and both sides gave it their all throughout, on a murky Sunday evening in Ros Glas GAA grounds. St Laurence’s started the scoring with a fine Mark Carroll point from way out near the sideline. A lead which they never surrendered. This was followed by a Brian Carney goal after five minutes following a mistake in the Sallins goal mouth. Sallins then opened their account with a fine point from a free, which was quickly followed by a Bill Morrissey point. Which left the sides 1-2 to 0-1 midway through the first half.
Then Sallins had a purple patch when they played some of their best hurling and were rewarded with three points in a row, at this stage Sallins were controlling mid field with some delightful hurling.
Kieran Roche then steadied the ship for Laurence’s with a point after a good run.
But Sallins never say die, hit back with a point to leave the sides a half time 1-3 to 0-5 in favour of St. Laurence’s.
The second half started at a blistering pace as both sides wanted to win this silverware, As the ball was thrown in Kieran Roche caught it and burst up field for one of the best points of the game. At this stage Brendan Gorman was commanding the half back line with the support of Laurence O Brien and Niall Rafferty. Brian Carney and Tommy O Neill were playing some excellent hurling on the half forward line which resulted in both men scoring from play. Sallins got one back but this was quickly followed by another Mark Carroll point to see all the half forward line get on the score sheet. This put the Larries four points clear but two quick points from Sallins left just two points between the sides as we entered mid-way through the second half 1-7 to 0-8.
At this stage St. Laurence’s showed they were hungry for success as the back line snuffed out the Sallins attacks with some great defending from Tony McMullen, Pat McCann and Ronan Donnallan.
Up front Mark Carroll struck for another great point, at this stage Taigh Fennin who was introduced at half time for the ageless John O Keefe was
revelling with the small ball and made his debut with the larries with excellent work upfront. Loran Kelly switched wings with Taigh Fennin and was unfortunate not to have scored a goal to put the game out of Sallins reach but brilliant work from the Sallins goal keeper gave them renewed hope as they charged down field and if it were not for the quick thinking from the oldest man on the field Bill Corcoran in the Larries goals Sallins could have raised a green flag.
From the puck out Mark Carroll caught a great ball and fired over to put 4 points between the sides again. From there on St. Laurence’s tightened their grip all over the field but some great hurling from Alan Corcoran, Kieran Roche, Brendan Gorman and Tommy O Neill who set up Teigh Fennin for larries last score. But Sallins had one final attack from a close in free but too many larries men in the goals deflected the ball over the bar. Then the referee blew for full time to the delight of St. Laurence’s on a final score line 1-11 to 10 points. As there were no representatives from either the County board or the hurling board the referee had to present the cup to the winning captain Alan Corcoran
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