St Vincents 8-18, Shamrocks 7-10
Take no notice of the 11 point winning margin here. St Vincents and Shamrocks could barely be seperated for 72 minutes of this amazing game that went into extra time, but unfortunately for Shamrocks, Vincents finished the stronger in the last 8 minutes to score a flattering 11 point win and move into the next round.
This was an incredible game of championship hurling played in St Vincents on Monday evening and you’ll go a long way to find a more exciting game all year with all players on both sides being 100% committed and displaying all the skill that hurling has to offer. To summarise – Shamrocks played with the very strong wind in the first half but found themsleves 2 goals down to one of the tournament favourites after 1 minute. Oh no we thought, here we go. But Shamrocks settled down and took over and started to run at the Vincents defence. They replied with 1-6 (Sam Geary goal and Cillian Hayes frees and from play) and all of a sudden they were in a game. Shane Downey burst through for the first of his incredible 4-1 from play and Shamrocks went 10 points up with 5 minutes to HT. Vincents brough it back to a 6 point game at HT and Shamrocks knew that they faced a mountain to climb facing the breeze and a fired up Vincents in the second half.
Downey ran through for a goal to put Shamrocks 9 up. Basically, the final 25 minutes was a rearguard action to try and get themselves over the line. With Evan Seymour performing heroics in goal, Shamrocks kept them at bay but could do nothing about their points. Vincents chipped away and had it down to 5 points with 10 left, 4 points with 6 left, 3 points with 3 left, 2 point entering injury time, 1 point 1 minute into injury time and with the final puck of the match, they drew it up, Shamrocks 6-7, Vincents 5-12. Back to square one and into ET; the drama continued.
Shamrocks played with the aid of the strong breeze in the first part of ET and in reality, being level at HT in ET cost them. Going by the wind, they needed to be at least 2 scores ahead at this point. They just couldnt score enough to give them the cushion they needed. With no subs, the legs were hanging at this point. Sure enough, 2 minutes into the second period, Vincents scored 1-2 to move ahead for the first time since the start of normal time. Shamrocks responded, attacked and went up the middle but a goalmouth scramble was cleared, the ball was driven downfield where Shamrocks were short at the back and the killer blow was driven home into Seymours net. That was it, the heads and legs were gone, Vincents added another goal in the final 80th minute to run out totally flattering 11 point winners. However, the best of luck to them in the next round.
It was rough justice on the Shamrocks lads who played themselves to a standstill and matched Vincents all the way until the very end. They were a credit to the jersey and there is no doubt that that there are fine hurlers on this team – they need attention on teh hurling side of things and also need to practice at home themselves. They can look forward to their few remaining league games with confidence after this display.
Team: E. Seymour, C. Murphy, M. Sisk, J. Sisk, D. O’Mahony, D. O’Flaherty, C. Hayes, S. Browne, S. Downey, D. Allen, S. Andrews, S. Geary, L. O’Driscoll.
Words of encouragament at the end of normal time V St Vincents, 4/7/16
