Carlow U20 hurlers fall just short against strong Kildare outfit
Shane Kelly keeps his eye on the ball as he scores a point against Kildare Photo: Pat Ahern
Carlow gave it their all but it was not enough in this second round Leinster under 20 hurling championship at Netwatch Cullen Park on Saturday.
The first half was a dour affair with the Kildare side registering eleven wides while Carlow struggled to get any flow into their game. Two Alex Bell frees coupled with a Tom Boran point pushed Kildare into the lead but they were hit by a Shane Kelly goal on nine minutes. What should have been a lift for the Barrowsiders was cancelled out almost immediately. Kildare hit back and a harmless looking effort by Tom Power from out the field dropped into the Carlow net off the fingers of Sean Buggy.
Afterwards, the Carlow manager, Brendan Hayden, exonerated the net-minder saying he has encouraged goalkeepers to catch the ball rather than batting it down into the path of onrushing forwards. The visitors registered a succession of wides but further points from Bell, Cian O’Reilly, Oran Byrne and Charlie Carroll saw Kildare going into half-time leading 1-8 to 1-3.
Carlow came out with all guns blazing for the second half and points from Colm Kavanagh, Cian Quirke and Conor De Lacey brought them within two of the visitors. An incisive run by Quirke almost beat the Kildare defence but they got enough bodies back to dispossess the Carlow ball carrier and eventually cleared the danger.
After that, Oran Byrne and Tom Boran raised white flags for the eventual winners before the second Kildare goal. Evan O’Briain seemed to be going for power but his under hit 43rd minute shot wrong-footed the keeper and looped high but just under the crossbar for the insurance three-pointer.
S Kelly 1-2 (1f), C Kavanagh 0-2, TJ Darcy, C Quirke, C De Lacey, T O’Neill, B Nolan (f), J Ingram 0-1 each
A Bell (4fs), C Carroll 0-4 (3fs) each, E O’Briain 1-1 O Byrne 0-3, T Power 1-0, T Boran 0-2, C O’Reilly 0-1.
Cormac Doolan; Dylan Doherty, Darragh Devine, Niall Cramer; Finnán Ó Dúlaing, Cian Brody, Michael Owens; Oran Byrne, Evan O’Briain; Cian O’Reilly, Charlie Carroll, Andrew McNiffe; Tom Boran, Alex Bell, Tom Power. Subs: Ciaran Dunne for O’Dulaing (39), Theo Frisby for Bell (39), Matthew Kelly for Doherty (44), James Bedford for Devine (48), CJ Boran for McNiffe (58).
Sean Buggy; Mark Dundon, Alan Wall, Patrick Hogan; Tadgh O’Neill, Jack Foley, James Ingram; Andy Jordan, Martin Carroll; Conor De Lacey, Billy Nolan, Jack Kelly; Cian Quirke, Colm Kavanagh, Shane Kelly. Subs: Charlie Byrne for Kavanagh (44), TJ Darcy for Jordan (48), Joey Dalton for De Lacey (48), Andy Ralph for Hogan (56), Conall McGuire for Carroll (56).
Rory Hanley (Dublin).
