French’s vital points haul

TEN POINTS from Tony French fired Adamstown to their first win of The Courtyard Ferns Intermediate hurling championship, as they came out on top of Blackwater in a very close affair in Oylegate on Sunday.

It looked impossible to predict a winner of this Group B game right up until the final stages, with the sides level on nine occasions throughout a real nip-and-tuck affair, but with three minutes remaining French hit two long-range frees that earned his side a hard-fought and well-deserved win.

Despite a Liam Stafford kicked goal in the opening minute, the eventual winners were slow to register scores, with Blackwater hitting six points thanks to Michael Lillis and Dean Whelan, before Michael Furlong finally grabbed Adamstown’s first point after ten minutes.

They then hit the next three scores to go ahead midway through the half. Whelan and Diarmuid Murphy were causing real problems for the Adamstown defence, hitting scores at will, and after ten minutes of hectic hurling, the sides went in level at the break after Seán Barden and Shane O’Gorman steadied the ship for last year’s finalists.

The game continued in much the same fashion in the second-half, with Blackwater getting the better of the exchanges thanks to Lillis and Whelan.

John and Tony French kept their side within touching distance, until midway through the half when Barden gathered possession as he raced towards goal and finished to the net with a tidy strike to put them in front for the first time in the second period.

The two main marksmen, Lillis and French, traded scores on three separate occasions as the game entered the final ten minutes, and when Dean Wright hit three points on the trot things still looked like it could go either way.

That was until French hit two superb late points to give his side their first win of the campaign.

Adamstown: Paul Delaney; Brendan Furlong, James Breen, John Whelan; Johnny Connors, Shane O’Gorman (0-1 free), Ian Bradley; Lorcan French, Michael Furlong (0-1); Tony French (0-10, 8 frees), Liam Stafford (1-0), John French (0-1); Paddy Whitty (0-1), Paudie Barden, Séan Barden (1-3). Subs. - Shane White for Whelan, M.J. Cooper for Bradley.

Blackwater: Peter O’Brien; Richard Blake, Lar Leacy, Brian Dooley; Mossy O’Brien, Darren Byrne, Kevin O’Brien; Denis O’Brien, Michael Lillis (0-9, 8 frees); Dean Whelan (0-4), Denis Carroll, Diarmuid Murphy (0-5); Seánie Purcell, Paul O’Leary, James Dooley. Subs. - Dean Wright (0-3, 1 free) for Carroll, Kevin Purcell for Leacy, Eoin O’Neill for D. O’Brien, Kevin Corrigan for S. Purcell, Shane O’Leary for Corrigan.

Referee:

Harriers). Phillip Murphy (Faythe