LIMERICK WICKLOW
WITH Wicklow coming into this game on the back of two impressive performances against both Waterford and Sligo, the Garden County supporters made their way west to take on the high-flying Limerick in a top-of-the-table clash where a win for either side would see them push strong for a promotion place.
With little or no breeze all supporters were hoping for a good game of football. Limerick started the game and it was clear from their opening attack that they were planning on running at the heart of the Wicklow defence.
From the throw in they immediately worked the ball into their full-forward Danny Neville who had his shot on goal blocked down superbly by Andy Maher.
The ball was worked out calmly but unfortunately Chris O’Brien’s shot dropped just short and Limerick broke at speed and set up another attack, but the ball was handpassed wide of the upright by Aiden Enright.
However, it was alarming times for the Wicklow defence as the Limerick forwards had broken through the rearguard twice in the opening two minutes of the game.
For all the attacking though it was Wicklow who opened the scoring with a fine score from distance by Mark Kenny. The point came after some great composure by Padraig O’Toole to make the space to allow for Kenny to get the Wicklow lads off to a positive start.
Unfortunately, Wicklow were unable to keep the pressure on the Limerick defence and they immediately responded with a point from Cillian Fahy after what looked like a pull down on Patrick Keane.
Again, worryingly from a Wicklow point of view, the attacker was bearing down one on one with Mark Jackson, but he opted to fist the ball over the bar to get Limerick up and running.
The home side then hit their purple patch and they dominated the Wicklow kick outs, putting serious pressure on Mark Jackson and forcing him to kick the ball out long where the Limerick midfield were on top.
Limerick capitalised on this spell of dominance to add another two points to their tally to have the score line reading 0-3 to 0-1 in favour of the Treaty men.
With Wicklow under pressure on their own kick outs it calls for leaders to come to the fore and that was to be the case in the next play when a kick out for Mark Jackson was broken down by Rory Finn into the path of Andy Maher who played the ball off to Dean Healy who took off on one of his trademark runs straight at the heart of the Limerick defence and they were left with no option but to foul the Wicklow man and it resulted in an easy free which Seanie Furlong struck over off the left.
Then in the tenth minute of the game the first major arrived and it went the way of the Limerick men with the overlapping corner-back Michael Donovan who broke through the centre of the Wicklow defence and released a bullet of a shot which left Mark Jackson with no chance.
Limerick pushed on and immediately increased lead with another point from the resulting kick out. Wicklow were finding it hard to get the ball out of their defence.
With the score board not reading to the Wicklow lads’ liking they were in need of a much-needed score and up came Rory Finn with an absolute monster of a point on the outside of the left boot, but again Limerick immediately responded with a point of their own.
Limerick were getting their scores all too easy; with each attack they looked like a score was going to be added.
Then Wicklow were again struck with another major blow when they conceded two goals in the space of a minute. The first coming from a defensive lapse when a quick free found Tommy Griffin free in front of goal. He fisted it across to Danny Neville who kicked into an empty goal.
Then from the resulting kick out the ball broke to Adrian Enright who chipped the ball into Richard Childs who found himself in the large rectangle with no Wicklow man in his way and he calmly slotted the ball to the back of the Wicklow net. Disaster for Davy Burke’s men.
Too be fair to Wicklow, after conceding the three goals they tried hard to get themselves back into the game.
With time almost up in the opening half they were dealt another blow with two injuries just before the half-time whistle. The first to go was Jack Hamilton who limped off with what looked like a nasty ankle injury and the second to Conor Byrne who ran into the man mountain Thomas Childs.
The half-time score read: Limerick 3-8, Wicklow 0-7, and a steep hill to climb for the visitors in the second half.
With the score line very much against them Wicklow needed to hit the ground running in the second half but, unfortunately for them, instead of reducing the deficit
Mark Jackson; Patrick O’Keane, Jamie Snell, Jack Hamilton; Andy Maher, Padraig O’Toole, Darren Hayden; Dean Healy, Rory Finn; Daniel Keane, Mark Kenny, Thomas Kearns; Conor Byrne, Chris O’Brien, Seanie Furlong. Subs: Oisin Manning for J Hamilton, Eoin Darcy for C Byrne, Gearoid Murphy for C O’Brien, Niall Donoghue for T Kearns, Patrick O’Rourke for D Keane.
Donal O’Sullivan; Paul Maher, Brian Fanning, Michael Donovan; Tony McCarthy, Iain Corbett, Robert Childs; Tommy Griffin, Tommie Childs; Adrian Enright, Cillian Fahy, Padraig De Brun; Hugh Bourke, Danny Neville, Padraig Scanlon. Subs: James Naughton for P De Brun, Seamus O’Carroll for P Scanlon, Josh Ryan for T Griffin, Davy Lyons for A Enright, David Connolly for P Maher.
LIMERICK: