Twelve pages of action on the domestic hurling front
Weak Glynn-Barntown fade
A STORMING second-half display gave St. Martin’s a surprisingly comfortable victory over Glynn-Barntown in the Pettitt’s Senior hurling championship Group A at Bellefield on Sunday.
Surprising insofar as opponents always expect a tough, physical battle, destined to go to the wire, against the Killurin men. Generally no win comes easy against Glynn-Barntown but in the end this was reasonably straightforward.
The caveat is, of course, that St. Martin’s must have benefited not only from their fairly intense league final defeat against Oulart-The Ballagh two weeks earlier, but also from what otherwise seemed like a futile run-out for seven of their starters in the Under-21 championship five days earlier.
That said, nobody will be shocked by another classy victory by the pretenders to the Oulart-The Ballagh throne. They started this game slowly, playing with the aid of what breeze was left, but they did only trail for four minutes in total.
While the Rapparees, and to a lesser extent Gorey, will have something to say about it, after starting the group off in septic fashion against Shelmaliers, St. Martin’s are just where they need to be to go on and take top spot in the table and, theoretically, the easier quarter-final.
Glynn-Barntown will need to re-group quickly. It’s possible, but somewhat unlikely, that both themselves and the Shels will reach the last eight, meaning their clash in Innovate Wexford Park on Saturday week is destined to be full of tension and intrigue.
The same two nouns could potentially be used to describe the mood in the video room when the Glynn-Barntown management sit down to watch the tape of this performance. In the first-half they gave as good as they got; in the second not so much.
They led by 0-2 to nil after a pair of John Leacy frees, only for St. Martin’s to register four on the bounce. Harry O’Connor agonisingly watched his shot meander across goal, almost in slow motion, and clip the post in the ninth minute. Glynn-Barntown duly responded and levelled with two quick scores.
Chances came and went at both ends until, at 0-7 each, Jack O’Connor’s long ball into the goalmouth was flicked to Ciarán Lyng by Rory O’Connor and the county footballer rattled the net. The only goal of the half was enough to give the Piercestown-based club a 1-10 to 0-10 interval advantage.
St. Martin’s scored seven points in the third quarter, their opponents managed just a solitary Gary Moore point, while the Glynn-Barntown man also forced Luke White into a solid save. Not to be outdone, Mark Fanning made two stops from Harry O’Connor rockets.
Leading by 1-17 to 0-11 after 45 minutes, St. Martin’s still had time for Joe Coleman to bring his dead-ball tally to eleven, and for Seán Stafford to become his team’s ninth scorer, first with a point and later with a cool finish past Fanning in injury time.
St. Martin’s: Luke White; Mark Maloney, Daithí Hayes, Conor Firman; Patrick O’Connor, Jack O’Connor (02), Aaron Maddock; Jake Firman, Joe O’Connor (0-2); Daithí Waters (0-1), Rory O’Connor (0-1), Joe Coleman (0-11, 10 frees, 1 ‘65); Harry O’Connor (0-2), Ciarán Lyng (capt., 1-1), Barry Lambert (0-2). Sub. - Seán Stafford (1-1) for Lyng (53).
Glynn-Barntown: Mark Fanning; Jack Fenlon, Pádraig Donnelly, Barry Doyle; Davy Clarke, Craig Doyle, Brendan Doyle; Gary Moore (0-4), Alan Cowman; Páraic Weafer, John Leacy (0-6, 5 frees, 1 ‘65), Michael Doyle; Rowan White (0-1), Michael O’Regan (capt., 0-2), J.J. Doyle. Subs. - Daire Barron (0-1) for Weafer (26), Callum O’Shea for B. Doyle (49), Matthew Joyce for White (52).
Referee: Barry Redmond (Clonard).