Ugly scenes as red mist descends
ST PATRICK’S GLENEALY 1-08 1-07
WHAT looked to be a fantastic game of hurling between two quality sides in Glenealy and St Patrick’s turned violent when players and management from both teams clashed causing the game to be abandoned.
The game started at a fast pace with St Pat’s and Glenealy trading points throughout the opening few minutes.
James O’Brien registered the first score of the game from a free to put St Pat’s into the lead before Paul O’Brien levelled for Glenealy from a free just inside the St Pat’s half.
St Pat’s began to take control of the game through James O’Brien who scored three unanswered points to give them an early advantage.
Glenealy responded with two points from Gary Hughes and a point from Ronan Manley to find their way back into the game in an enthralling first half.
Glenealy looked to have made a breakthrough when Paul O’Brien had the ball in the back of the net but the referee called the ball back for a free which Gary Hughes stuck over the bar.
St Pat’s answered back with a point from George O’Brien to give them the lead and they looked to be taking control of the game.
However, this all changed in the 29th minute when Glenealy, somewhat against the run of play, scored a goal through the impressive Gary Hughes to restore his side’s lead.
Both sides registered a point each before the end of the half to make the score 1-05 to 0-07 in favour of Glenealy at the break.
The game quickly heated up in the second-half, with both teams registering an early point each before the game exploded into chaos after Daniel O’Brien scored an impressive goal for St Pat’s.
During O’Brien’s celebrations an incident occurred off the ball between O’Brien and Fionn McLoughlin of Glenealy.
This led to a mass brawl between both sets of players and the dismissals of both McLoughlin and Pat’s forward Craig O’Brien.
Once the commotion had settled down the hurling began to take centre stage again for a brief period of time as both teams showed some fantastic pieces of play to try and find that elusive breakthrough.
Glenealy registered a point through the ever impressive Gary Hughes to get themselves within one point of their opponents and try maybe come away with the victory.
However, the hurling became secondary yet again as the game descended into farcical chaos in the 49th minute.
After a Glenealy player went down injured following a foul a confrontation occurred between the Glenealy manager and Dennis O’Brien of St Pat’s.
O’Brien was sent off for striking the manager but that wasn’t the end of the encounter.
The game reached boiling point as members of both teams and coaching staffs had to be held apart before the final nail in the coffin for this game was reached.
During the confrontation an altercation occurred between a Glenealy and St Patrick’s coach which left the St Patrick’s coach on the floor requiring an ambulance to be called.
This only increased hostilities and the game had gone completely out of control. During the wait for the ambulance tempers began to simmer and there was one question on everyone’s mind – Would the game be continued?
That answer was given by the referee after a lengthy discussion with his officials and the game was abandoned which was the only real option offered to the officials under the circumstances.
Unfortunately for Wicklow hurling a very exciting game was derailed and completely overshadowed by the very ugly ending to what would have been a brilliant sporting spectacle.