Shane salvages draw
BATTLING St. James’ through a Shane Murphy pointed additional time free salvaged a draw with neighbours Fethard in this excellent Courtyard Ferns Intermediate Hurling Championship game played in Horeswood on Saturday evening last.
While St. James’ were full value for their share of the points, still Fethard will wonder where it all went wrong, as they allowed a two-point lead slip in the closing minutes, but in the end they still showed that the provincial Junior champions will be a real fore come the knock-out stages of the title race.
In ideal weather conditions both sides managed to serve up a battling sixty minutes, with the local derby living up to expectations, this despite the face that both sides went into the game knowing their quarter-final spot was sucure. But bragging right were fought for and in the end a draw was perhaps a fair result after sixty torrid minutes of hurling.
Given the nature of the game, and despite the ideal conditions, it was patently evidence from the early exchanges that scoring was going to be difficult to come by, as the respective defences set out their stall with no-nonsense defending, so it was no surprise that the result came down to the final puck of the game.
Shane Murphy free, and a delightful Darren Foley effort off the sideline saw the sides share the opening scores, but on five minutes, corner-forward Michael O’Grady managed to slip his marker, soloing through and despite the close attention of two recovering defenders, he found the corner of the net with a splendid shot giving the James’ a 1-1 to 0-1 lead.
Fethard improved as the half went on, with Darren Foley firing over some excellent points, while it was the accuracy of Shane Murphy from placed balls that helped his side to a 1-7 to 0-9 interval lead.
There was somewhat of a scoring drought through the second sixty minutes. Early second half points from Gary O’Grady, free, and Richard Waters, the best player on view, helped Fethard into a 0-11 to 1-7 lead.
With O’Grady and Murphy going on to share two pointed frees, apiece, it was a superb run and point from Richard Waters that extended Fethard into a 0-14 to 1-9 lead, with less than two minutes remaining.
St. James were finding scoring difficult, but when a Murphy pointed free left the minimum between the sides as the game rolled into additional time, it was Murphy who created the additional time free, which he pointed to hand his side a share of the points.
St. Mogue’s (Fethard): Sean Foley; Martin Power, Kevin Rowe, Daniel Mullan; Joe Sutton, Garreth Foley (0-1), Richard Waters (0-3); Graham O’Grady (0-6, 0-4 frees, 0-2, 65s), John Tubritt; Edmund Power, Ciaran Dwyer, Jimmy Sutton (0-1); Ruairi Tubritt; Darren Foley (0-3), Mark Wallace. Subs: Adm Swan for Wallace (inj); Daire Barden for Dwyer; Brian Power for R Tubritt.
St. James: Graeme Molloy; Paul Barron, Jason Barron, Brian Molloy; David Doyle, Liam Murphy, Daniel Keating; Mark Molloy, Robbie Barron; Alan Walsh, Matthew O’Hanlon, Mark Myler; Donal Barron, Shane Murphy (0-11, 0-8 frees), Michael O’Grady (1-0). Subs: Darragh Lyons for Myler; Tommy Walsh for Robbie Barron; Joe Walsh for Alan Walsh.
Referee: James Mullally