Hurlers Beat Carlow By Seven Points
Allianz Hurling League Division 2A
OFFALY 1-19 CARLOW 1-12
Kevin Egan at Glenisk O’Connor Park
Offaly’s unbeaten run through Division 2A of the Allianz hurling league continued this afternoon, as they overcame torrential rain and dogged resistance from Carlow to record a seven-point win over their fellow Joe McDonagh competitors at Glenisk O’Connor Park in Tullamore.
Not for the first time this season, indiscipline was an issue for Carlow as there were red cards for Diarmuid Byrne, Jack Kavanagh and one of their mentors – with Offaly’s Cillian Kiely also seeing red – but missed chances arguably haunted the visitors even more so. They trailed by 0-11 to 0-6 at half time despite enjoying more than their fair share of the play, and will feel that on another day, they could easily have been in front at that stage of proceedings.
Eoghan Cahill was in excellent form for Offaly, from frees and from general play, while Charlie Mitchell, Kiely and Oisín Kelly also weighed in with excellent scores. Carlow registered a couple of nice points too, but Martin Kavanagh had a real off-day from frees, missing multiple chances in each half, while last week’s four-goal hero Paddy Boland spilled a short pass when a clean catch would have left him clean through on goal, and Ciarán Burke was able to swoop in and avert the danger before Boland could regroup.
After the change of ends, the home side fell into the trap of playing the ball long because they could, instead of doing so because they should, for the first ten minutes of their wind-assisted second half. This opened the door for Carlow to eat into their lead, with Ciarán Whelan and Martin Kavanagh on the mark from play, in between two converted frees that reduced the gap to a goal, 0-13 to 0-10.
Offaly’s best performers during this phase of the game were all in their own half of the field, with Ross Ravenhill, Ben Conneely and Ciarán Burke particularly impressive, but at the other end of the pitch, poor distribution was allowing Carlow’s defence to lock down the threat of the Offaly attack.
A second yellow card for Diarmuid Byrne after 48 minutes, awarded for a trip, opened things up a little for Offaly, who briefly moved five points ahead, but an equally rash frontal charge for Cillian Kiely with a quarter of an hour to play negated that numerical advantage, and while the lead was never less than three points, nobody was tempted to leave the Tullamore venue in any sort of confidence that the contest was resolved.
Jack Kavanagh became the third man to see red in the 67th minute and the contest opened up from there, with Adrian Cleary and Shane Dooley shooting late points either side of a David Nally goal, though a scrappy Jack McCullagh effort at the other end prevented Offaly from racking up what would have been a hugely deceptive double-figure margin of victory.
Even as it was, seven points seemed on the generous side, though Offaly certainly deserved to prevail, if only because of their much smaller number of self-inflicted wounds.
Offaly: Stephen Corcoran; Jack Screeney, Ciarán Burke, Ben Conneely; David King, Jason Sampson, Killian Sampson; Jack Clancy, Ross Ravenhill; David Nally (1-00), Oisín Kelly (0-01), Adrian Cleary (0-01); Eoghan Cahill (0-11, 0-08 frees), Cillian Kiely (0-04, 0-01 free), Charlie Mitchell (0-01).
Subs: Pádraig Cantwell for King (30), Eimhin Kelly for O Kelly (63), Paddy Delaney for Clancy (68), Shane Dooley (0-01) for Mitchell (70+3), Dara Maher for Screeney (70+3).
Carlow: Brian Tracey; Conor Lawler, Paul Doyle, Jack McCullagh (1-00); Jack Kavanagh (0-01), Fiachra Fitzpatrick, Kevin McDonald; Diarmuid Byrne (0-01), James Doyle (0-01); Ciarán Whelan (0-01), Martin Kavanagh (0-05, 0-03 frees), Jon Nolan; Jack Tracey, Chris Nolan (0-03, 0-01 free), Paddy Boland.
Subs: Conor Kehoe for Whelan (41), Páidí O’Shea for C Nolan (55), Fiach O’Toole for Tracey (58), Michael Joyce for Boland (64), Richard Coady for Fitzpatrick (68)
Referee: Michael Kennedy (Tipperary)
