Magical Marty fires Carlow to within touching distance of McDonagh Cup Final
Marty Kavanagh scored the last three points as Carlow beat Down in Ballycran in Round 3 of the Joe McDonagh Cup Photo: Gareth Sharvin
Three late Marty Kavanagh frees saw Carlow keep their Joe McDonagh Cup hopes on track at McKenna Park, Ballycran on Saturday. Having held a 1-9 to 0-5 lead with the aid of the strong wind in the opening half, the eventual winners led ten by points in the third quarter.
Down had their purple patch scoring 2-10 to 1-4 to leave them three points clear going into the closing stages. From there, Carlow dug deep and turned the Down momentum around and an opportunist Paddy Boland goal proved to be the match winner.
Down threw everything at their visitors in an effort to save themselves but the Carlow defence came out on top and at the other end, the forwards won the frees which saw them emerge victorious from what is always a tricky venue.
Even though they had the wind behind them Carlow struggled in the opening half. They registered eight wides and coming to the break, they looked to be in serious trouble when only leading by four points. It took a pass from Chris Nolan to open the home defence and Kavanagh’s strike saw his side take a seven point lead into the second half.
On the restart, Donagh Murphy scored his third point from play and while Pierce McCrickard converted a free, Carlow looked to be in control when Kavanagh supplied the assist and James Doyle found the Down net.
The home side were always going to have their moments and Donal Hughes capped a fine second half performance with a goal on 49 minutes. Everything Down did turned to gold at this stage as five of their starting forwards scored from play. Defenders, Ben Taggart and Barry Trainor, also raised white flags.
With five minutes to go came Boland’s strike and, once again, suggested a Carlow victory. There was no turning the game around this time for what must have been a shell-shocked Down side who surely must have thought they had done enough in their period of dominance late on.
The result leaves Carlow top of the group as the only team with maximum points from the opening three rounds and a win in either of their last two games, at home to London next Saturday and then away to Antrim in the final round, will secure a place in the final at Croke Park.
Scorers:
M Kavanagh 1-10 (65 7fs), J Doyle 1-2, D Murphy 0-3, P Boland 1-0, J Treacy, C Nolan 0-1 each.
P Og McCrickard 1-4 (sl 65 2fs), D Hughes 1-2, T McGrattan 0-3, T Prenter 0-3, D Sands 0-2, B Taggart, C Coleman, B Trainor 0-1 each.
Brian Tracey; Paul Doyle, Dion Wall, Jack McCullagh; Fiach O’Toole, Kevin McDonald, Fiachra Fitzpatrick; Jon Nolan, Ciaran Whelan; Jack Treacy, Marty Kavanagh, James Doyle; Donagh Murphy, Conor Kehoe, Chris Nolan.
Subs: Evan Kealy for O’Toole (44), Paddy Boland for Murphy (53), John Michael Nolan for Kehoe (59), Jake Nolan for Treacy (66).
Pearce Smyth; Tom Murray, Ruairi McCrickard, Ben Taggart; Barry Trainor, Caolan Taggart, Niall McFarland; Donal Hughes, Pearce Og McCrickard, Finn Turpin; Tom McGrattan, Tim Prenter, Cahal Coleman.
Subs: Marc Fisher for Trainor (39), Ronan Beatty for Prenter (55), Ronan Smyth for Murray (60), Paul Sheehan for B Taggart (64), Shea Pucci for P Og McCrickard (68).
Eamonn Furlong (Wexford).
