Victory for Juniors As

White’s Cross 1-15 Delaneys 3-08

The Junior A football team got their second league victory of the season with a narrow one point win over Delaneys on Sunday morning. The game, played in glorious sunshine in Killbarry, got off to a whirlwind start with five points in the opening five minutes.

Dylan Burke got both of White’s Cross scores but it was the Dublin Hill lads that got off to the better start and lead by three points to two after the opening exchanges. Conor Buckley got an equaliser after nine minutes before Delaneys got the opening goal. There was a real element of good fortune to this effort as the shot was an attempt at a point but dropped short and deceived goalkeeper Ruairí Teehan and settled in the bottom corner of the net. White’s Cross scored three of the next four points to cut the deficit to one point after 16 minutes.

The scores dried up for a period before Bryan O’Sullivan showed the forwards how it is done when he came up the field to kick a superb point from play after 27 minutes. The home side finished the half with two points to ensure that they lead at half time on a scoreline of 1-06 to 0-07.

Two Conor Buckley frees tied the sides on the resumption. Then on six minutes, Delaneys got their second goal of the game. There was a question of a square-ball about this as their full-forward got a fist to a ball after a delivery from the half-forward line. White’s Cross, having cut the deficit from the first goal, had to start again from three points behind.

Three Conor Buckley points in succession managed this before a fine point from Dylan Burke put his side into the lead for the first time since his opening score in the first minute of the game. Ethan Ryan put White’s Cross back into the lead on 22 minutes after Delaneys had equalised. The key moment of the game came a minute later as Barry Prendergast finished low to the back of the net despite the best efforts of Niall Foley in goal. Dylan Burke added another point from play before Delaneys pulled one back to leave four points in it as the game went into injury time.

There was still time for the homeside to get another goal. There were no question marks surrounding this goal as their full-forward fairly buried the ball into the top-corner of the net. Luckily for White’s Cross there was no time for them to mount another attack to try to level the game. White’s Cross therefore held on for a deserved victory.

Team - Ruairi Teehan, Seán O’Gorman, Bryan O’Sullivan (0-01), Cormac Dervan, Richie Sherlock, Donncha Murnane, Killian Ryan, Barry Prendergast, (1-01), Stephen Whooley, Kevin Buckley, Ethan Ryan (0-01), Conor Buckley (0-07; 0-06 frees), Shane Cahill (0-01), Dylan Burke (0-04; 0-01 free). Subs Fergal Reid.