Stafford guides Martin’s home

ST. MARTIN’S

ST. MARY’S (ROSSLARE)

ST. MARY’S may have enjoyed a blazing start to this game, but in the end the more clinical St. Martin’s outfit eventually emerged with a three-point victory from this entertaining Permanent TSB Junior hurling championship Group B game in Rathangan on Sunday.

When St. Mary’s raced into a 0-6 to 0-1 lead by the end of the opening quarter, things looked promising, as they were producing a huge effort and forcing their opponents into mistakes.

But despite their amount of possession they had still to rely on the accuracy of Lee Devereux from placed balls, while at the same time allowing numerous scoring opportunities to evade them through hasty shooting.

With Devereux scoring three of their opening six points from frees to go along with efforts from Philip Lambert, Robert Butler and Kevin Power, they looked more than capable of upsetting their more fancied opponents whose solitary response was a Seán Stafford effort in between.

With Naomhan Rossiter and Stafford going on to exchange points, Rosslare still looked comfortable when they led by 0-9 to 0-3 after 24 minutes.

Two minutes later St. Martin’s received a real fillip when Nicky Greene found the net with a low shot, and this left just two points separating the sides at the interval (0-9 to 1-4).

While St. Martin’s did most of the pressing on the resumption, it was still Stafford and Devereux who exchanged opening points.

With Devereux adding a further pointed free, St. Mary’s were clinging to a two-point lead (0-13 to 1-8) at the end of the third quarter.

In the closing ten minutes Seán Stafford exploded into the game, striking over three points, two from frees, before finding the net eight minutes from the end.

And with St. Mary’s now unable to break down the opposing defence, the eventual winners led by 2-13 to 0-13 entering additional time when Lee Devereux eventually found an opening to plant a low shot into the corner of the net, but it was too late to change the final result.

St. Martin’s: Callum Quirke; Donal Kelly, Philip Dempsey, Sam Audsley; Adrian Ryan, Tony Kelly, Eoin O’Leary; Adam Cantwell, Conor Coleman (01); Ben Stafford, Nicky Greene (1-0), Kyle Firman (0-2); Diarmuid Byrne, Seán Stafford (1-7, 0-4 frees), Liam O Lionáin (0-1). Sub. - Philip Waters (0-2) for Byrne.

St. Mary’s: Micheál Ferguson; Ned Power, Gearóid Byrne, Barry Quirke; Philip Lambert (0-1), Naomhan Rossiter (0-1), Larry Morrissey; Tiarnan Rossiter (0-1), Paul Kinsella; Ultan Quirke, Robert Butler (0-2), Andrew Murphy; Kevin Power (0-1), Lee Devereux (1-7, 0-6 frees), Stephen Breen.

Referee: Seán Slaven (Faythe Harriers).