O’Brien and Smyth seal Wicklow win

LIMERICK’S promotion hopes suffered a severe blow as they crashed to a five-point defeat to Wicklow at Aughrim yesterday.

The Garden County had the elements behind them in the first half but they would have felt anything but safe and secure at half-time when clinging to an inadequate 0-6 to 0-3 lead.

Full-forward Stephen Duffy fired over two points in the first five minutes, the first a great effort from the sideline, but after that their scoring was sparse as they found they could not break Limerick’s stout defence.

Darragh Treacy and Tommy Childs were pivotal for Limerick’s rearguard action, while cornerforward Seán McSweeney lofted over two sweet points, the first a free.

McSweeney again struck early in the second half and, when Seamus Carroll found the net on 49 minutes to put Limerick in front by 1-5 to 0-7, it looked odds on that the Treaty men would prevail.

But now it was Wicklow’s turn to turn the adverse wind in their favour. Maintaining possession in defence before striking cobra-like in attacking bursts, Chris O’Brien and Theo Smyth blasted to the Limerick net to seal victory.

SCORERS – Wicklow: C O’Brien 1-2, T Smyth 1-1, S Duffy

0-3 (1f), M Jackson (f) and D Healy 0-1 each. Limerick: S O’Carroll 1-0, C McSweeney 0-5, J Lee 0-1.

WICKLOW – M Jackson 8; O Manning 6 , R O’Brien 7, J Snell 7; D Devereux 6, S Mooney 7, D Fitzgerald 7; P O’Toole 6, D Healy 6; M Fitzsimons 5, M Kenny 6, T Smyth 7; C O’Brien 8, S Duffy 7, P O’Connor 5. Subs: P McLoughlin for M Fitzsimons, D Keane for P O’Connor, E Murtagh for S Duffy, C Healy for T Smyth, F O’Shea for C O’Brien.

LIMERICK – D O’Sullivan 6; S O’Dea 6, G Noonan7, P Maher 6; C McSweeney 7, I Corbett 7, C Fahy 7; D Treacy 7, T Childs 7; P Nash 7, J Lee 6, B Donovan 6; S McSweeney 8, P Begley 6, S O’Carroll 7. Subs: O Collins for B Donovan, M Donovan for P Maher, S Keeley for T Childs, M Fitzgibbon for P Nash, and K Daly for J Lee.

REF – D Murnane (Cork)