TRINITY GIVE WICKLOW A DECENT TEST
TRINITY proved to be a little bit tougher than IT Tallaght but it did Wicklow no harm to work for their win and set them up for the Kehoe Cup final and the national league.
The match was level, 1-12 each, with fifteen minutes to go but Wicklow pulled away in the final quarter, scoring 2-4 to Trinity’s point.
There were some good performances and some performances that warrant improvement. Eoghan O’Mahony was very good in goal, pulling off three saves at pivotal times to keep Trinity at bay.
In front of him Eugene Dunne and Garry Byrne did well and the other defenders had their moments.
The forward line didn’t click as usual, too much ball was won by the Trinity defence.
Christy Moorehouse missed a couple of frees too many and Andy O’Brien has become accustomed to scoring more than four points per match. He was lucky to not pick up a second yellow card by showing his frustration towards the referee.
George O’Brien certainly didn’t hit the heights of last weekend and a couple of the subs will be eyeing up the chance to take a starting jersey in future games.
Wicklow started well and were two points to the good within five minutes, Gerry Connors first and then Andy O’Brien fizzed a shot a foot too high for the top corner.
But Trinity were not prepared to give Wicklow an easy ride and the game was level by the eighth minute through Donnacha Butler and Eoin Kelly.
Indeed they went ahead on a couple of occasions only for Wicklow to reply each time and it was four points apiece ten minutes later.
Ronan Keddy scored a scrappy goal to hand the impetus back to Wicklow and he and Moorehouse tagged on a point each to give Wicklow a 1-6 to 0-4 lead on 22 minutes. Trinity however dominated the final period of the first half and outscored Wicklow by five points to one.
Eoin Kelly hit the pick of the scores with an outrageous dum- my that sent Warren Kavanagh sprawled across the ground, demonstrating that by law any hurler named Eoin Kelly is good.
Eoghan O’Mahony kept Wicklow ahead with not one, but two penalty saves from Eoghan McNamara on the half hour mark.
Peter Keane fouled Kelly for a penalty and O’Mahony was adjudged to have come off his line early for the first shot, much to the disgruntlement of the Wicklow subs and officials.
The penalty was taken a second time and again O’Mahony saved it, deflecting it out for a 65.
As he was getting some plaudits and pats on the back, Peter Keane and Donnacha Butler were engaging in some shouldering, as happens in matches. And as happens in matches, the referee brandished a yellow card for both.
Only Keane got a second yellow a few seconds later, much to the bemusement of everyone, and Wicklow were down to fourteen men after 31 minutes.
Fionn O’Rian Broin dispatched the 65 and Wicklow led by a point at half time, 1-7 to 9 points.
Trinity started the second half very well, putting the Wicklow backs under fierce pressure and hounding their every move that gave them a few chances they couldn’t convert.
They were made to rue those misses as Wicklow knocked over a few points to open a three point lead they maintained until the 56th minute. At that point it looked like Wicklow would just about keep their noses in front for the rest of the match but Donnacha Butler had other ideas.
Martin O’Brien didn’t cut out a long ball that came in and Butler got to it before it went wide to pull and score a goal, level.
That jolted Moorehouse into action who won the puck out and went through tackles and swinging hurls and anything in his way to get a shot off and instantly restore the goal lead.
Andy O’Brien added a point before he was dragged back by the Trinity goalkeeper for a penalty that Moorehouse duly dispatched.
That made it 3-13 to 1-12 on the sixty minute mark and Wicklow saw the game out from there to set up a Kehoe Cup final meeting with Maynooth University next weekend.