Second-half show steers St Mullins to junior hurling showpiece
A battle for possession during the JJ Kavanagh & Sons Co. junior hurling championship semi-final between St. Mullins and Mount Leinster Rangers.
An excellent second half performance which included two goals in the space of a minute at Netwatch Cullen Park on Friday sealed St Mullins a place in the Junior Hurling Championship final.
Mount Leinster Rangers edged into the lead on 19 minutes with Eoin Fenlon on target from frees and adding another point from play. A Michael Fenlon free finally got the eventual winners off the mark but Fenlon immediately cancelled that out with another pointed free.
Both sides created goal chances with Darren Whelan nearly through for St Mullins but an astute use of the hurley by a Rangers defender left him without possession.
At the O’Hanrahan end, John Coady saw his instinctive effort saved thanks to the quick reflexes of Mark Ryan. Later on, the St Mullins keeper made another save which went a long way towards sucking some of the energy out of the Rangers entire effort.
With five minutes to go to half-time, St Mullins made a vital breakthrough when an attack saw the ball break loose in front of goal and Fenlon was on hand to find the net. It could have gone much better for St Mullins after that.
James Ryan converted a long range free and out of nowhere they only trailed 0-8 to 1-3.
In a five-minute spell immediately after the interval, Fenlon and Kelly exchanged pointed frees. Kelly added another and Rangers were living on borrowed time when John Walsh raised another green flag for St Mullins. A minute later a rocket from Darren Whelan also found the net and it was theirs to lose now.
Rangers needed to score next but instead, another substitute, Alex Doyle, pointed. There was still 17 minutes to go when James Bible scored the Rangers goal but they just couldn’t get going.
St Mullins had their number and keeping it in the family where Pat Fenlon, a member of the Mullins management team, saw his brother come on and score 1-2, he had to be delighted when his son also entered the fray and got among the scorers with a point. Further points from Whelan and Walsh ended the contest but they still had to be on their toes.
Who knows what might have happened if Ryan didn’t make another save to keep out an Eoin Fenlon shot which would have brought the margin to three points. That block meant there was no question to be answered and St Mullins marched on to a decider against Ballinkillen.
M Fenlon 1-2 (2fs), J Walsh 1-1, D Whelan 1-1, J Kelly 0-3 (fs), A Doyle, P Fenlon 0-1 each.
E Fenlon 0-6 (5fs), James Bible 1-0, J Quinn 0-2 (1f), J Joyce 0-1 (f).
Mark Ryan; Tommy Collier, Thomas Coady, Kian Foley; Dan Kelly James Kelly, Andy Corcoran; Brian Collier, James Murphy; Chris Kavanagh, Anthony Murphy, John Walsh; Michael Fenlon, Darren Whelan, Edward Kennedy.
Alex Doyle for Kennedy (18), Conor Doyle for A Murphy (39), Padraig Fenlon for J Murphy (41), Mark O’Shea for Coady (58).
Derek Byrne; Stephen Lalor, Daithi Coleman, Tomas Joyce; Liam Lalor, David Phelan, Tom Keogh; James Quinn, Karl Lawlor; Eddie Coady, James Bible, Ciaran Kavanagh; Eoin Fenlon, John Coady, Jack Joyce.
Ben Bolger for J Joyce (39), Denis Roche for J Coady (41), Noel Jordan for S Lalor (41), Barry Coleman for Kavanagh (52), MJ Doran for L Lalor (48).
Sean McCormack (Carlow Town).
