ASKAMORE ACES
Supreme team effort lands Minor title
ASKAMORE D’TOWN-C’CUDDY
BIGGER IS better, they claim, but not as far as Askamore are concerned as their talented 19-man squad claimed a hard-earned but well-deserved Wexford People Minor hurling Roinn 2 championship crown in Monageer.
The Ballyroebuck boys are the epitome of team. They work hard for each other, they never quit, they complement each other’s skill-set perfectly, and when everything is working in sync, like it was in this game, it’s tough to stop.
Davidstown-Courtnacuddy gave it a good go. They stood toe-to-toe with this driven Askamore outfit and matched them for three quarters of the game.
However, they simply couldn’t overcome the loss of Mark Murphy to an unfortunate injury in the final quarter.
The first-half was a classic case of you score, we score. James Kelly notched six of his side’s seven points in the period, with Mark Kavanagh picking off the seventh.
At the other end Kevin Kenny started the scoring and Páraic Hayden ended it, but the impressive James Byrne popped the five in between.
It meant that the sides went in at 0-7 each. While it was even throughout, Davidstown-Courtnacuddy did create the two half-chances in front of goal but Jack Nolan was in splendid form, stopping shots from Owen Furlong and Mark Kavanagh with the minimum of fuss.
The drama amped up in the third quarter. Askamore started it well with Peter O’Neill’s first point, and then grabbed the first goal of the game when Darragh Kinsella took Byrne’s pass and dispatched the sliothar high past Seán Cooper.
Back came Davidstown-Courtnacuddy with a goal of their own, with Owen Furlong lofting a shot over Nolan and into the top corner. Barry Nolan levelled the scores in the 42nd minute (1-8 each) but they couldn’t get themselves in front.
Askamore were leading by a point when Mark Murphy took an accidental blow to the head. His loss was clearly felt as O’Neill, Byrne and Tom Kinsella quickly pointed to ease their side into a two-score lead.
Kinsella netted in the final minute of normal time to put the game to bed but Ned O’Neill was denied another moments later by a brave Cooper. Substitute Seán Bookey then made an impact with a classy late point.
James Kelly drilled a 40-metre free to the net with venom in the sixth minute of added time, but it wasn’t enough to get his side back into the game as Askamore hung on to take the Roinn 2 crown.
Askamore: Jack Nolan; Ronan Dillon, Garrett O’Connor, Pádraig O’Rourke; Kieran Kenny, Jim Sharry (capt.), Peter O’Neill (0-2); Seán Kirwan, John Kavanagh; Kevin Kenny (0-1), James Byrne (0-7, 3 frees), Ned O’Neill; Tom Kinsella (1-1), Darragh Kinsella (1-1), Páraic Hayden (0-1). Subs. - Seán Bookey (0-1) for Hayden (60), also Conor Kehoe, Martin Byrne, Seán O’Rourke.
Davidstown-Courtnacuddy: Seán Cooper; Rory Loughlin, Darragh Cooper, Donal Harrington; Michael McGinty, Mark Murphy, Luke Harrington; James Kelly (1-7, 1-5 frees), Pádraig Loughlin (capt.); Owen Furlong (1-0), Mark Kavanagh (0-1), Michael Andrews; Barry Nolan (0-1), Harry McCafferty, Joe Askins. Subs. - Eddie Kelly for McCafferty (31), T.J. Owens for Murphy, inj. (54), Stephen Hickey for E. Kelly (60+5), also Conor Blyth, James Clince, Cian Jordan, Charlie Dunne, Ewan Kennedy, Oran French, Jim Doyle.
Referee: Shane Quinn (Ballygarrett).