Costly win for Eire Óg men Kelly and Smullen injured
at Blessington line up to this point with the westerners getting little change out of the Greystones full-back line but it was the O’Connor brothers who supplied Kevin John Rogers with the ball for the wing forward to reduce the gap to a goal with 20 minutes gone.
Points from Sean Lawless, Daniel Keane and a monster 45 from Daniel Woods stretched the Greystones lead in the run in to half time while Blessington found Lorcan Traenor in inspired form in the Greystones goal as the shot stopper tipped an Anthony McLoughlin effort over to ensure a deserved five-oint lead at half-time.
The second half brought a double substitution from Blessington and their introductions brought the Blues back on level terms within 10 minutes of the second half.
Barry Murphy scored the first of his two points of the day to kick start the second half on a powerful run from his back line. A goalmouth scramble and some great defence from Greystones went unrewarded on the seventh minute as a foul was called by referee Kieron Kenny in the small square and Curtis Geraghty showed a cool head to fire low to the left corner.
Paul McLoughlin grabbed the equalising point with a fine run through the middle and the momentum was firmly behind Blessington. Sam Thompson and Barry Murphy swapped scores just before Stephen Kitt thwarted a goal chance from Thompson with 10 to play. Danny Woods restored the Greystones lead with five to blow before a massive loss for the Éire Óg men with the loss of Stephen Kelly and Craig Smullen to injury.
Smullen pulled up with his hamstring and Kelly left the pitch in a sling in what has since been described as a serious collar bone injury.
Mikey O’Connor restored parity as the game entered injury time but with the aforementioned injuries, there would be time on the clock.
Tenacious tackling from Peter Keane on his 21 started the charge for Greystones resulting in a Sam Thompson point which was followed up immediately with a quick free from Darren Hayden to Jamie McDonald which brought the gap to two.
However, a two-point lead can be dangerous in football and Paul McLoughlin almost pulled off a miracle win for Blessington in the fourth minute of injury time but his effort was turned onto the crossbar and over by Traenor who will have enjoyed the sound of Kieron Kenny’s full-time whistle
Blessington: Stephen Kitt, Barry Murphy (0-2), Jack Gilligan, Kevin Hanlon, Stephen Bohen, Michael McLoughlin, Barry Finnan, Eoin Keogh, Gavin Murray, Kevin John Rogers (0-1), Peter Manning, Anthony McLoughlin (0-1), Michael Nugent (0-1), Patrick O’Connor, Mikey O’Connor (0-3). Subs Curtis Geraghty for Peter Manning (1-0), Paul McLoughlin for Gavin Murray (0-2), Conor Kenny for Kevin John Rogers, Eddie Boylan for Conor Kenny.
Éire Óg: Lorcan Traenor, Peter Keane, Justin O’Brien, Matthew Maguire, Craig Smullen, Stephen Kelly, Eoin McHugh, Daniel Woods (0-3), Dominic Reilly, John Paul Connolly (0-1), Darren Hayden (0-1) , Daniel Keane (0-1), Sean Lawless (0-1), Eddie Davis (1-0), Sam Thompson (0-3) Subs: Billy Cuddihy for Eddie Davis, John Deeney for Craig Smullen, James Leonard for Sean Lawless, Jamie McDonald (0-1) for Daniel Keane and Declan O’Mahoney for Stephen Kelly.
Referee: Kieron Kenny