Sound Anne’s recovery

A SPIRITED second-half performance saw St. Anne’s get back to winning ways as they beat HWH-Bunclody in this hardfought The Courtyard Ferns Intermediate hurling championship Group A game in Oylegate on Sunday.

After leading by two points at half-time, the eventual winners looked like they were heading for their second successive loss as HWH-Bunclody were fired in front by an Aidan Nolan penalty and further scores from Eoin and Billy Kelly.

But in typical fashion the Rathangan-based side fought back to hit 1-6 in the final quarter for a hard-earned win.

There was nothing separating the sides early on as Aidan Nolan’s great individual goal after ten minutes steadied his side after David O’Connor, Aidan Rochford and Mark Furlong got St. Anne’s off to a good start.

Nolan continued to impress and put his side three points ahead with help from the Kelly cousins with ten minutes remaining in the half.

St. Anne’s were not going to lie down however, and after Jonathan Fogarty hit the net after a great run, Diarmuid O’Keeffe showed what he was made of, taking on three men to finish excellently to the bottom corner of the net.

This gave the Anne’s a twopoint lead that was outdone by some great work by a dogged Bunclody side, and with Colm Farrell, the Kellys and Nolan in excellent form they fought themselves into the lead ten minutes after the re-start.

It looked like the penalty would give them the final bit of inspiration to push on for a win but it didn’t play out like that at all.

Going into the final quarter St. Anne’s were also awarded a penalty that Furlong buried, and further points from O’Keeffe and Furlong saw them take get back to winning ways.

St. Anne’s: Redmond Barry; Kevin White, Tomás Cullen, Páraic O’Keeffe; Kenny Cloney, Aidan Rochford (0-1), Finn O’Driscoll; Mark Furlong (1-8, 0-7 frees, 1-0 pen.), Séamus Mythen; Jonathan Fogarty (1-0), Diarmuid O’Keeffe (1-4), Jess Codd; Liam Rochford (0-1), David O’Connor (0-1), Mikey Fogarty. Subs. - Brian Kavangh for L. Rochford, Francis Simpson for D. O’Connor.

HWH-Bunclody: Arthur O’Neill; Martin O’Connor, Colm Farrell, David Reck; John Dunne, Seán Kenny, Enda Slevin; Peter Atkinson, Aidan Nolan (2-3, 1-0 pen.); Niall Kelly, Eoin Kelly (0-2), Jason Cowman (0-1); Cathal Doyle, Ronan Roberts, Billy Kelly (0-8, 5 frees). Subs. - John Atkinson for Kenny, Conor Hendrick for Doyle.

Referee: Gearóid McGrath (St. James’).