Pat’s and Éire Óg serve up a decent battle

ST PATRICK’S 1-17 ÉIRE ÓG 2-10 WITH the other two Dacia Cars Senior Hurling Championship games at the weekend being fairly one-sided it was left to the hurlers of St Pat’s and Éire Óg to serve up a thriller in Joule Park, Aughrim, on Sunday afternoon. And on that front they both succeeded admirably.

It was always going to be interesting to see what benefits would accrue from the county experience gained by the healthy group of hurlers from both camps in 2017 and what dynamic if any would result from the Wicklow coaching role served by Pat’s manager Michael Neary when it came to sending out his charges to face his inter-county soldiers.

On the latter front, aside from a comment or two when tensions were high on the field of play, all was seemingly respectful enough while in terms of hurling standards the influence of Michael Neary and Seamus Murphy and more lately of Neary for Pat’s and Eamonn Scallan with Éire Óg has improved the hurling in both camps without a shadow of a doubt and while Bray might be a step too far for both of them this year there is absolutely no reason whatsoever that either can’t claim the scalps of Carnew or Glenealy.

Having come so painfully close to seeing off Bray earlier in the week, Éire Óg came to Joule Park, Aughrim, hoping to claim a vital victory in their second championship game. Pat’s on the other hand needed to negotiate this very tricky tie to leave them in a healthy place before the meetings with the top three.

And what a battle ensued. Looking back, the introduction of Dee O’Brien in the ninth minute of the second half was to have a massive bearing on this clash. He had literally only just crossed the white line when he drifted in behind the Éire Óg defence to catch a breaking ball and lash home past Paul Gaskin.

This was an incredibly important goal for Michael Neary’s men as it brought them from one behind to two ahead and switched the momentum at a key moment early in the second half.

The goal came just shortly after another major event in the game when midfielder Andrew Walsh was shown a straight red card by referee Kieran O’Shea for an incident around the middle of the field on the stand side which must have left Eamonn Scallan scratching his head after he had watched his side reduced to 14 against Bray earlier in the week as well.

Pat’s drew first blood in a hectic opening few minutes when George O’Brien laid off to George O’Connor who slotted over a beauty from a tight angle with two Éire Óg defenders bearing down on him out on the sideline.

A wide from Anto Byrne was followed by a sweet score from play for the centre-half forward after good work from Peter Keane and Hugh O’Neill.

Pat’s had started county star Andy O’Brien at centre-half back and this selection would last until about 18 minutes into the game when Michael Neary reacted to a period of dominance by Stephen ‘Chester’ Kelly by sending Andy O’Brien in to the edge of the square where Kelly was always going to follow with Billy Cuddihy coming out to the centre-half back position. John Connors replaced Andy in his defensive role.

At that stage Éire Óg were leading by 0-04 to 0-03 at this stage, their other three points coming from James ‘Pooch’ Cranley while Pat’s could thank Terry Healy and Andy O’Brien from a 65 for keeping them in touch.

It was nip and tuck for the remainder of the first half with Hugh O’Neill adding a point for the Greystones men while a converted John Connors free and George O’Brien from play left Pat’s ahead by one with 28 minutes gone.

And then came the game’s opening goal. A high ball from Anto Byrne from out near the sideline was dropped by Eoghan O’Mahony and there waiting was Andrew Walsh who gathered and pulled hard to the top corner of the Pat’s net to leave the Greystones men leading by 1-05 to 0-06 at the break.

Two Andy O’Brien frees pulled the sides level in the early moments of the second half and then Walsh was given his marching orders.

James Cranley returned Éire Óg to the front with a converted free and then Michael NEary sent in Dee O’Brien and boom we had a game on our hands.

Clever play from Ger Whyte set up Danny Nolan for a point to reduce the arrears to one but a wicked Andy O’Brien effort pushed that lead back out to two.

Eamonn Scallan rang the changes with John Lawless coming in for Danny Nolan and Sean Hughes in for Ben Nolan a few moments later with Peter Keane firing over a screamer and Andy grabbing another free in between those changes to leave it 1-10 to 1-08 to Pat’s after 16 minutes of the second half.

Not satisfied with the goal he scored, Dee O’Brien added two points in three minutes either side of a John Connors point and a James Cranley point from a free to give Pat’s a healthy looking 1-13 to 1-09 lead.

And then a long ball from Peter Keane broke out to the corner where it was gathered by Kristin Flynn. He recycled to James Cranley who fired in a dangerous ball which was met by the hurl of Ger Whyte who whacked the ball down for an almost certain goal only for Eoghan O’Mahony to show why he’s the best goalkeeper in the county at this moment in time with a tremendous reflex save. However, his save sent the ball out to Kristin Flynn who drove hard to the back of the Pat’s net, 1-13 to 2-09.

James ‘Jimzer’ O’Brien and Cranley swapped points before Pat’s pushed on with points from Andy O’Brien and two from George O’Brien to leave Pat’s victors on a score of 1-17 to 2-10.

An over enthusiastic run in from Ger Whyte under a final high ball sent him on a collision course with Gerry Connors and the two entangled and appeared to come to blows which produced a bit of schemozzle at the end of the game with both men in question receiving straight red cards.

It was a pity because aside from the Andrew Walsh incident and a wild pull from an Éire Óg man on the head of a Pat’s player in the second half, that amazingly went unpunished, there was little enough unnecessary stuff to report from this game

Scorers – St Patrick’s: Andy O’Brien 0-07 (5f, 1 65), George O’Brien 0-03, Dee O’Brien 1-02, John Connors 0-02, George O’Connor 0-01, Terry Healy 0-01, James ‘Jimzer’ O’Brien 0-01.

Éire Óg Greystones: James Cranley 0-07 (3f); Andrew Walsh 1-00, Kristin Flynn 1-00, Anto Byrne 0-01, Danny Nolan 0-01, Peter Keane 0-01.

St Patrick’s: Eoghan O’Mahony; Michael Connors, Gerry Connors, George ‘Bee’ O’Brien; Terry Healy, Andy O’Brien, Niall Hanton; James Byrne, Richard Quinn; James ‘Jimzer’ O’Brien, James ‘Bonner’ O’Brien, John Connors; George O’Connor, George O’Brien, Christy Moorehouse. Subs: Dee O’Brien for James O’Brien; Dale Quinn for George O’Brien.

Éire Óg Greystones: Paul Gaskin; Conal Deeney, Billy Cuddihy, Daniel O’Connor; Peter Keane, Stephen Kelly, Kristin Flynn; Andrew Walsh, Ben Nolan; Gavin Parslow, Anto Byrne, Danny Nolan; James Cranley, Ger Whyte, Hugh O’Neill. Subs: Sean Hughes for B Nolan; John Lawless for D Nolan.

Referee: Kieran O’Shea