Carlow beat young Wicklow side to lift O'Byrne Shield
Liam Gavin fires home Carlow's opening goal in the O'Byrne Shield win over Wicklow in SETU Carlow Photo: Michael O'Rourke
Carlow proved too good for the U20 Wicklow side in the Dioralyte O’Byrne Shield final at the SETU Campus on Friday.
There would have been a bit of pressure on the home team considering they were playing an underage side but they went about their business well. A typical Conor Doyle run through the defence gave Paddy Regan to open the scoring straight from the throw in.
Wicklow replied with points from Thomas Tisdall, Regan Kelly and Eddie Cullen. The home side hit back and levelled through Chris Blake and Padhraig Bolger.
Once Liam Gavin and Ross Dunphy struck for 10th and 23rd minute goals into the Bagenalstown end of the ground, the silverware was all but in Carlow hands.
Wicklow missed a penalty when Johnny Furey dived to his right to save from Thomas Tisdall but they did find the Carlow net when Eddie Cullen scored from close range.
At the interval, Carlow led 2-7 to 1-4.
Both sides used the game to field a number of substitutes. Darragh Foley came on and picked off two frees. Wicklow pressed at times and again Furey had to be on his toes. After the game, Carlow manager, Joe Murphy admitted he was not too unhappy with a less than satisfactory performance as it gives him a chance to rectify matters as their National Football League Division 4 trip to Antrim next weekend closes in.
C Blake 0-6 (4fs), L Gavin 1-1, R Dunphy 1-1, D Foley 0-2 (fs), P Regan, P Bolger, A Amond 0-1 each.
E Cullen 1-1, P Small (1f), R Kelly 0-2 each, B Kealy, C Broderick 0-1 each.
Johnny Furey; Cian Cashman, Dara Curran, Lee Moore; Paddy Regan, John Murphy, Padhraig Bolger; Conor Doyle, Jimmie Carroll; Aaron Amond, Colm Hulton, Ross Dunphy; Liam Gavin, Chris Blake, Cormac Lomax. Subs: Eoghan Ruth for Carroll, Emmet Moran for Bolger, Kevin Murphy for Hulton (all ht), Evan Corr for Doyle (39), Jamie Clarke for Gavin (39), Darragh Foley for Blake (41), Patrick Doyle for Curran (47), Milo Feehan for Dunphy (50).
Adam O’Leary; Joe Kindlon, Connor Coody, Cian Keogh; Barry Kealy, Ken Cullen, Joe Heatly; Regan Kelly, Oisin Murphy; Mark O’Reilly, Eanna Nolan, Ryan Harrison; Patrick Small, Eddie Cullen, Thomas Tisdall. Subs: David Peppard for Harrison, Fionn Darcy for O’Reilly, Lorcan Toomey for Kindlon, Conor Broderick for Cullen (all h/t), Lorcan Byrne for Nolan (39), Matthew Fox for Kealy (50), Jim Corrigan for Tisdall (53), Aaron Keogh for Doody (53), Darragh Shanahan for Small (57).
U McElroy (Louth).
