Oylegate outpoint the Harriers
Division 1A in Oylegate OYLEGATE-GLENBRIEN wrapped up their second win of the Greenstar Under-20 hurling championship Division 1A campaign with eight points to spare on home soil against understrength Faythe Harriers on Wednesday.
With qualification for the knockout stages guaranteed to all sides who complete their group programme without conceding more than one walkover, a phoney war feeling hung over the fixture played on a rock-hard pitch.
The boys in blue dominated for long periods but failed - thanks in large measure to Harriers ‘keeper James Henebery – to find the back of the net throughout the hour.
The townies, with just the bare 15 at their disposal, were clearly second best but still managed to put in a couple of bright spells, usually involving Conall Clancy whose four points made him the game’s leading scorer from play (plus one from a free).
Oylegate-Glenbrien lorded it in the opening stages, knocking over eight scores without reply, with Damien Reck zipping passes out of defence with laser-like precision and Jack Reck buzzing in midfield, while Joe Dunne served as an excellent targetman.
The visitors appeared disjointed and hesitant but, just as spectators were about to write them off, Conall Clancy fired them into a revival, knocking over a score from the right, a score from a free, and then a score from the left, with Conor Kehoe also on target.
A magnificent long-range point from deep in his own half from Damien Reck helped Oylegate-Glenbrien to an 0-11 to 0-4 advantage at the break, leading the home supporters in the neat stand to expect that their lads would push on to a big score.
Instead, Conall Clancy showed that Damien Reck was human after all, nicking the sliothar off the centre-back to register his fourth point, with David Gouldson and Conor Kehoe tacking on further scores to reduce the gap to four five minutes into the second-half.
That was as close as it got, however, though Oylegate-Glenbrien never recovered the fluency exhibited in the first-half.
Full-forward Barry Doyle was upended in a cloud of dust to earn a penalty on 37 minutes, but James Henebery made the save from Damien Reck at the set-piece.
The crowd was treated to just six points in the closing 25 minutes but, with most of these sailing over Henebery’s bar, the result was never in any real doubt.
Oylegate-Glenbrien: Kevin Cosgrave; Joe Foley, Mike Kelly, Aidan Shanahan; Peter Rowley, Damien Reck (0-2), Garry Conroy; Jack Reck (0-6, 5 frees), Conor Nolan; Ryan Hill, Pierce Murphy, Eoghan Herlihy; Joe Dunne (0-3), Barry Doyle, Fiachra Hourihane. Subs. - Tom White (0-2) for Hill (30), Richard Murphy for Conroy (30), Hill for Shanahan (45), Adam Gethings for Doyle (45), Lee Kehoe for Nolan (56).
Faythe Harriers: James Henebery; Jake Clancy, Cathal Kirwan, Danny Walsh; Shane Hall, Seán Banville, Dáire Reville; Daniel Lynch, David Gouldson (0-1); Emmett Nolan, Conall Clancy (05, 1 free), Chris Glover; Conor Kehoe (0-2) Jack O’Leary, Paddy Glover.
Referee: Justin Heffernan (Blackwater).