ÉIRE ÓG GREYSTONES
IOMÁINT - Éire Óg drew with Glenealy, 2-14 to 1-17 in their match in the league stages of the Dacia Cars SHC in Joule Park on Saturday evening last.
Based on the history of the clubs in the competition to that date one would not have given the seasiders a snowball’s chance in hell of coming near such an achievement.
Glenealy had been unbeaten while Na Clocha Liatha lads had lost two of their games and had been extremely lucky in scraping past Carnew by the minimum of margins the previous week.
For the pessimistic among us the fixture had the air of lambs to the slaughter about it.
The team taking to the field against Glenealy, whilst comprising essentially the same personnel, luckily bore no resemblance in action to that which played against Carnew.
Gone was the fumbling and foostering, poor handling and striking which characterised that game, instead we had a team transformed playing with confidence, skill and coherence.
Éire Óg were in attack mode from the throw-in and, to everyone’s eye-rubbing astonishment, were (thanks to a long-distance goal from Anto Byrne and another from the ‘Pooch’ after a pass from Michael Walsh) 2-0 to 0-1 ahead on six minutes.
The expected Glenealy fight-back was immediate but thanks to the committed engagement of the Éire Óg lads throughout the field it did not take the feared form of a deluge of scores and instead the gap on the scoreboard was only very gradually whittled down. The teams were level at the short whistle.
The second half was closely fought but with Glenealy maintaining a narrow lead through the 30 minutes. Gavin Parslow brought the teams to parity with a point from play deep in injury time.
The two sets of players are to be commended for both the quality of their play and its honesty.
This was a contest which would bring joy to any hurling enthusiast’s heart for its wonderful sportsmanship and the intensity of its man-to-man engagement (untainted by any pre-arranged system).
Buíochas leo go léir for giving us such an enjoyable game.
PEIL NA GCAILÍNÍ - The under-16s’ league campaign ended last week with a 6-17 to 4-13 win at home against An Tóchar. While it might be somewhat dramatic to describe the campaign as having begun in a whimper and having ended in a blaze of glory it did mirror this description.