Higgins hits winning goal
RATHNURE GLYNN-BARNTOWN
THE GENERALLY youthful Rathnure squad enjoyed a second character-building Pettitt’s Senior hurling championship Group B win in O’Kennedy Park, New Ross, on Saturday when they recovered from a seven-point deficit to defeat Glynn-Barntown by one goal.
The eventual winners trailed by 1-6 to 0-3 after 17 minutes, and later by 1-9 to 0-5, and their situation wasn’t a great deal better by the interval when the Wexford District side led by 1-10 to 0-9.
However, two very well-taken goals by county Under-21 attacker Rory Higgins turned the tie in their favour, with the second clincher arriving as a result of excellent refereeing by Barry Redmond.
The score stood at 1-16 to 1-14 in favour of Rathnure with just over three minutes remaining when a good advantage was played, with Redmond’s own experience as a player alerting him to the possibilities as Higgins had broken clear inside.
And the full-forward’s first-time pull ended in the net at the dressing-room end, although Mark Fanning will have been disappointed not to have kept it out given that he got his stick to the shot.
The goal completed an impressive turnaround by Rathnure who had loaded their defence with an extra body in the first-half but still struggled to cope with the early dominance of big Michael O’Regan.
He had goaled after 72 seconds from an Alan Cowman delivery, and also added the first three Glynn-Barntown points, two from play, as they stormed into a 1-3 to 0-1 lead after nine minutes.
Three points from Aidan Redmond - after an early move to left half-forward - kept Rathnure in touch, while a line ball from Gary Moore was the stand-out score for the early pace-setters who had drawn with Oulart-The Ballagh in their first outing.
The outcome was in the melting pot six minutes into the second-half when a long Brian Quigley free was gathered and passed by a Rathnure attacker into the path of Rory Higgins who batted to the net first-time to narrow the gap to 1-12 to 1-10.
His county colleague, Rowan White, responded with a point, but the tide turned as Rathnure hit five scores without reply between the 39th and 52nd minutes, courtesy of Seán O’Connor, Podge Doyle, O’Connor (free), the lead point from Michael Redmond, and Aidan Redmond (1-15 to 1-13).
Gary Moore and the excellent Shane Lawlor went on to swap scores before that game-winning second goal from Rory Higgins, although Glynn-Barntown did step it up near the end as John Leacy (free) and Daire Barron pulled back points.
Rathnure: Dermot Flynn (capt.); Paddy Whiteley, Brian Quigley, Denis Maher; Shane Lawlor (0-1), Declan Foley, Aidan Redmond (0-4); Podge Doyle (0-1), Richie Flynn; Cathal O’Connor, James Tobin, Eoin Higgins (0-1); Seán O’Connor (0-4, 3 frees), Rory Higgins (2-3), Michael Redmond (0-2). Subs. - Micheál O’Connor for R. Flynn (22).
Glynn-Barntown: Mark Fanning; Frankie Hynes, Pádraig Donnelly, Shane Codd; Ben O’Shea, John Leacy (04, 3 frees, 1 ’65), David Clarke; Michael Doyle, Gary Moore (capt., 0-4, 1 line ball); Daire Barron (0-1), Rowan White (0-1), Alan Cowman; Ian Moran (0-1), Michael O’Regan (1-5, 0-3 frees), Brendan Doyle. Subs. - Barry Doyle for Brendan Doyle, inj. (49), Fionn Cooney for Moran (51).
Referee: Barry Redmond (Clonard).