Depleted Carlow Town put to the sword by impressive looking St Mullins

A depleted Carlow Town side were put to the sword with relative ease by last year’s champions in this intermediate hurling championship third round tie in Bahana on Sunday.

Short the likes of John Phiri, Karol English, Kyle Nolan and Conor Lawlor these are big and talented men who any side would struggle without them. Yet Carlow Town gave as good as they got at times. The concession of three-pointers was the difference and even then, one of the St Mullins goals came from a penalty and the other a goal-keeping error.

St Mullins started well. Alex Doyle, Gavin Connolly and James Doyle fired over points. The visitors replied with Alex Delaney converting a free and Ruairi Dunbar also on the mark.

St Mullins kept the pressure on and stretched their advantage with a brace of scores. Seven minutes in, the first goal arrived when Gavin Connolly was on hand to fire home.

With Delaney and Dunbar stretching the home defence, Carlow Town were back in the game only trailing by three points in the second quarter. They were unlucky to concede a penalty when a long delivery was collected by Seamus Murphy who was bundled over. It was one of those calls. Some are given. On other occasions the ball-receiver is penalised. Yet before he made the delivery, the right-half back, James Doyle, had fouled the ball when throwing up and then catching it again without the sliotar touching the hurl. No criticism of the referee with the incident taking place between the ball and the player’s body. No referee would have seen it.

And so Carlow paid the full price as Murphy found the bottom left-hand corner with a powerful shot. At the other end, the visitors only created one goal chance when a quick free was gathered but the St Mullins defence was alert to the danger and crowded out the ball carrier.

At the interval St Mullins led 2-7 to 0-7.

The youthful Carlow Town team brought the fight to their rivals in the second half. For ten minutes and a number of points were exchanged and there was still six points between them. The St Mullins defence held their rivals in a vice-like grip and never gave them the space to fight back. The old dogs for the hard road were just too good.

Yet the final goal was only of those things which happen as a delivery dipped under the crossbar and into the net. That hurt. The home side went on to record a 12-point win. In reality, there was not that much between the sides. Yet there is no time for sentiment at this level. The Oak Park side know that too but it is all to play for still. There is every chance these sides will meet again.

Scorers 

St Mullins: S Murphy 1-3 (1-0 pen, 1f), C Connolly, D Murphy 1-0 each, A Doyle 0-4 (1f), E Doyle 0-3, J Doyle 0-2 (1f), B Kealy, C Kavanagh, G Connolly, J Kelly 0-1 each.

Carlow Town: A Delaney 0-10fs, R Dunbar 0-2, J Ingram 0-1.

ST MULLINS: James Doyle; Sean Doyle, Stephen O’Brien, Laurence Brennan; James Doyle, Oisin Boland, Chris Kavanagh; Brian Kealy, Colm Kavanagh; Eddie Doyle, Alex Doyle, Gavin Connolly; Jake Kelly, Seamus Murphy, Cathal Connolly.

Subs: Fergal Doyle for G Connolly (42), Martin Murphy for Kealy (53), Donal Murphy for G Connolly (54).

CARLOW TOWN: Joe Bermingham; Conall McGuire, Cathal Ryan, Stephen Lacey; Laz Meaney, Diarmuid Murphy, Adam Nolan; Blake Holmes, Matthew English Hayden; Brandon Farrell, Ruairi Dunbar, James Ingram; Oisin Pender, Alex Delaney, Jamie Ayres.

Subs: Dan Brennan for Ayres (25), Cian Campion for Farrell (38), Sean Buggy for Holmes (42).

Referee: Martin Murphy (Tinryland).