AHL 6 – Ballyboden St Enda’s 2 19 Thomas Davis 4 11
It was all so close at Páirc Ui Murchu on Tuesday evening last. The weather, the scoreboard and the marking was a close as it gets. Two precious league points were on offer to the winners and with 4 teams, including these 2 combatants, in the running for promotion nobody was going to take a backward step.
Davis’ started this match on fire and with their very first attack they struck for the opening goal within a minute. Cathal Creed did well to get in a hook on a Davis shot at goal but the sliothar fell kindly for full forward Dean Gibbons who found the net with a top spinning stroke. Gibbons almost immediately followed up with a point to put the visitors 4 points up. Boden were rattled but found the composure over the next 15 minutes to keep within range. With 5 minutes to the break the hosts had managed to tie up the game. However, Davis gained a substantial lead at half time thanks to 2 goals that were sloppy to say the least. The half time score of 0-9 to 3-6 and Boden had a mountain to climb in the second half.
Things got worse right at the throw in when midfielder Mark Landers collect his own flick forward to dissect the posts and put the Tallaght side into a commanding 7-point lead. With the game slowly slipping away Boden from somewhere summoned up a response. Dermot Coffey fired over a succession of points from play and frees. However, the hero of the hour was the ever young Emmet Carroll. He took a pass from Adam Fischer in the 15th minute of the half and fired home a spectacular goal at the dressing room end. The deficit was now a very manageable 1 point and from there until the final whistle both sides gave their all. Corner back Johnny McCormack drove up field and fired over a fine point while sub Aidan Dundon skimmed the crossbar for another minor. Coffey continued to shoot scores from all angles.
Not surprisingly tired bodies began to pick up injuries and 8 agonising minutes of injury time was added on by the referee. With 5 minutes left Laoch Na hImeartha, Emmet Carroll, ran in his second goal to ease the nerves. A speculative strike with the last puck of the game made it a 2-point game but to great relief the final whistle was blown at the puck out.
Panel: Ross McCormack, Cathal Creed, Conor Barton, Johnny McCormack, John Murray, Brian Kennedy (Captain), Micheál Manning, Neal Farrell 0-1, Seán Lambert 0-1, Tommy Deane, Dermot Coffey 0-9, 5 frees, 1×65, Ciarán Twomey 0-1, Oisin Cannon 0-1, Emmet Carroll 2-4, Adam Fischer 0-1, Aidan Dundon 0-1, Dennis Callanan, Kevin Brady, Cian Mealy, James Kinsella.