Leinster Senior Hurling Championship Round 1 Galway 2-25, Carlow 2-14 With 18 minutes of normal time remaining in Sunday’s strongly contested Leinster Senior Hurling Championship first round game in sunny Salthill the scoreboard read 1-18 to 1-14 in Galway’s favour, visiting Carlow just having located the net courtesy of Conor Kehoe who fastened on to […]
Leinster Senior Hurling Championship Round 1
Galway 2-25, Carlow 2-14
With 18 minutes of normal time remaining in Sunday’s strongly contested Leinster Senior Hurling Championship first round game in sunny Salthill the scoreboard read 1-18 to 1-14 in Galway’s favour, visiting Carlow just having located the net courtesy of Conor Kehoe who fastened on to Darach Fahy’s parry of a stinging Marty Kavanagh shot to whip a ground stroke to the home rigging.
This was just moments after Jon Nolan saw net bound shot, this one out of the hand, cannon off the crossbar. The small but vociferous Carlow crowd in the Pearse Stadium attendance of 1,500 dared to dream of a famous victory or, perhaps, more accurately, dared to believe that the losing margin would be less than the six point ‘moral victory’ of 2019.
Alas, down the other end the cavalry had arrived in the shape of Conor Whelan, the Kinvara club man sprung from the bench in the 49th minute arrowing over three superb points and helping create the clinching goal for Conor Cooney – a rocket of a shot to put perfect finish on a necklace of clever maroon passes.
It also put ‘finish’ on Carlow’s surpassing the 1-24 to 1-18 defeat of five years ago at the same venue though the Barrowsiders continued to battle and were rewarded with a second goal when Jon Nolan swept a ground stroke to the net after Marty Kavanagh’s penalty had been parried by Darach Fahy.
The exchanges, strong all through, became very tetchy towards the finish but one felt referee Sean Stack showed a bit of common sense when content to issue a player from either side a couple of yellow cards for an incident near the terrace sideline when perhaps by the letter of the law and the shade might have been darker.
Happily Carlow emerged from this game with no suspensions and no new injuries as the prepare for Dublin in the County Grounds next week though the continued absence of James Doyle – how he would have thrived in this game – and wily Conor Lawlor lessens the red, yellow and green options.
Carlow manager Tom Mullally and his backroom team travelled to the seaside with a definite game plan and their use of a sweeper was cleverly deployed as was the attempted crowding of the middle third though this on a couple of occasions in the first half meant long Carlow deliveries towards goal came to ground in a area of the field completely bereft of a red, yellow and green body.
Mind you Carlow started very well and virtually from the throw-in championship debutante Ciaran Whelan picked off a fantastic mid-distance point. However one feared for the worst when Galway opened up to Carlow rearguard to allow Gavin Lee goal as early as the second minute.
Carlow, though, battened down the hatches after that and with 20 minutes played it was just 1-6 to 0-6, ‘Mouse’ having picked over a few marvellous points from play and placed balls, John Michael Nolan too rifling over a great point while Tony Lawlor’s left hand strike from the terrace wing yielded a marvellous white flag.
Come half-time it was 1-14 to 0-9 in Carlow’s favour, Marty Kavanagh’s second point from play his 200th point from play for Carlow’s flagship hurlers in all competitions.
The visitors first half performance was so-so, some of their play a little bit tentative though there was a lot of good work done too but again the pessimist in us feared the second half might bring a deluge of scores.
Instead, on the change-over Carlow really took the game to their more vaunted opponents and when Jon Nolan rose that green flag it meant the 2023 Joe McDonagh champions had outscored the 2023 All-Ireland semi-finalists 1-5 to 0-4 during that third quarter.
Then, unfolded the sequence of scores referred to earlier. You could argue that the margin of defeat is maybe a bit harsh on Carlow given that apart from the shot off the crossbar Carlow had two further goal chances, one in the first half when Chris Nolan cut in but miscued his shot, another in the second smothered by good Galway covering.
As against that, though, good Carlow covering prevented Conor Whelan adding to his green flag tally while Galway had a ‘goal’ disallowed in the second half after a long delivery wound up in the Carlow rigging but was ruled out for a dubious square infringement.
Going down a defeat in single figures would have been acceptable to a lot of Carlow supporters and while that wasn’t achieved there was plenty to admire about Carlow’s play. “Up until the time Conor Whelan came on ye did very little wrong” started a Galway supporter on the terrace, “when Whelan came on he was able to make the ball stick, make things happen”.
And that is what Carlow will have to do next week against Dublin, make things happen.
In this helter-skelter championship there is little time for reflection, it’s next game, next ball…
CARLOW: Brian Tracey (Naomh Eoin); Paul Doyle (St Mullins), Dion Wall (Ballinkillen), Niall Bolger (Bagenalstown Gaels); Jack Kavanagh (St Mullins), Kevin McDonald (Mount Leinster Rangers) Capt, Tony Lawler (Mount Leinster Rangers) 0-1; Fiachra Fitzpatrick (Mount Leinster Rangers),Richie Coady (Mount Leinster Rangers); John Michael Nolan (Naomh Eoin) 0-1, Ciarán Whelan (Ballinkillen) 0-1, Jon Nolan (Mount Leinster Rangers) 1-1: Marty Kavanagh (St Mullins) 0-8 5f, Chris Nolan (Mount Leinster Rangers) 0-2, Conor Kehoe (St Mullins) 1-0, Subs: Jack McCullagh (Bagenalstown Gaels) for J Kavanagh (60), Paddy Boland (St Mullins) for C Kehoe (61), Fiach O’Toole (Naomh Bríd) for C Whelan (65), Scott Treacy (Naomh Eoin) for C Nolan (67), Jake Doyle (Bagenalstown Gaels) for JM Nolan (69)
GALWAY: Darach Fahy (Ardrahan); Jack Grealish (Gort), Fintan Burke (St Thomas’), Padraic Mannion (Ahascragh-Fohenagh); Seán Linnane (Turloughmore), Adrian Touhey (Beagh) 0-1, Daithí Burke (Turloughmore); Ronan Glennon (Mullagh) 0-1, Donal O’Shea; (Salthill-Knocknacarra) 0-1, Gavin Lee (Clarinbridge) 1-2, Tom Monaghan (Craughwell) 0-2, John Cooney (Sarsfields); Cathal Mannion (Ahascragh-Fohenagh) 0-3, Conor Cooney (St Thomas’) Capt 1-10 0-3f, 0-2 ’65’, Declan McLoughlin (Portumna) 0-1. Subs: Evan Niland (Clarinbridge) 0-1 for Monaghan (49), Conor Whelan (Kinvara) 0-3 for McLoughlin (49), David Burke (St Thomas’) for Glennon (57), Darren Morrissey (Sarsfields) for Linnane (57), Joseph Cooney (Sarsfields) for Touhey (62).
Referee: Sean Stack (Dublin)
