Late Howard point snatches dramatic Duhallow winner
Duhallow 3-16 Blarney 3-15
FOR sheer excitement it would be difficult to better this dramatic County Premier 1 Minor Hurling Championship quarter final after Duhallow snatched victory by the narrowest of margins over Blarney.
Much of the drama was packed into the closing minutes as the scintillating contest swung back and forth. With a scoreboard at 1-14 apiece in the 59th minute, Blarney appeared to gain the upperhand from a Padraig Power goal.
The sides proceeded to trade points to Paddy Browne and Power before Duhallow were back on level terms, Daniel O’Connell and Tomás Howard placed Evan Murphy for a peach of a goal.
The suspense and excitement continued, the power pendulum leaned towards Blarney again in the 64th minute, on substitute Eamonn O’Mahony raising a green flag. However, Duhallow weren’t relenting, trailing by three, a free was won in front of the Blarney posts and up stepped ‘keeper Luke Philpott to send a rasper to the net.
Deadlocked again but one more phase of play remained, Howard came up with the match-winning Duhallow point. Earlier, Howard gave Duhallow an advantage to goal from a penalty before Blarney settled to edge the proceedings, a James Dineen goal helped secure a 1-8 to 1-5 advantage at the break.
Blarney remained three ahead by the three quarter mark only for Duhallow to rally, points to Philpott, O’Connell and Murphy squared up matters. During the latter stages, the sides went eyeball to eyeball before Howard landed the matchwinner in a rousing finish. DUHALLOW: L Philpott (Banteer) 1-2f; T Healy (Millstreet), J Cronin (Millstreet), G Lynes (Croke Rovers); S Curtin (Croke Rovers), C O’Callaghan (Dromtariffe), P Browne (Newmarket) 0-2; C Crowley (Newmarket), D O’Mahony (Croke Rovers); M Lyons (St. Marks), S Hickey (Millstreet) 0-2, E Murphy (Dromtariffe) 1-3; T Howard (Dromtariffe) 1-5 (0-3f, 1-0 pen), D O’Connell (Kanturk) 0-2, P Moynihan (Millstreet). Subs: A Murphy (Millstreet) fort Cronin, R O’Mahony (Croke Rovers) for Moynihan, N Linehan (St. Marks) for Crowley, M Buckley (St. Marks) for Lyons.
BLARNEY: J Doody; D Hoare, B Walsh, G Mullane; L O’Connor, C Power, B Ahern; E Hyland 0-2 (1f, 1 ‘65’), D Hanlon 0-2; W Crowley, B Dennehy, C Hegarty 0-1; P Power 1-5, J Dineen 1-2, S Barrett 0-3, Subs: E O’Mahony 1-0 for Dineen, J O’Keeffe for Crowley.
REFEREE: N Wall (Carrigaline)