Ballyboden St Endas “A” 1 14  Raheny 0 15

Long Fella Reports from PUM

A balmy Saturday evening was the scene for round seven of the Adult hurling league 1 at HQ. A warm wind tried to enter the pitch from Cherryfield, but its strength had little impact on the proceedings. Some of the substantial crowd may have felt that the game quality left them short-changed after watching the home side struggle to get over the winning line. The visitors brought real intent to the contest, and dominated the final ten minutes, albeit falling short in the scoring stakes. Boden’s rearguard, particularly cornerman Rob Leddy and number three Sean McDonnell dug in deep, and can take huge credit for the defensive effort. Further outfield Pearce Christie gave a superb performance in driving the attack, and further up, Niall Ryan and Ronan Twomey were the main scorers in this low yielding game.

Boden opened the game in a flurry, with three quick points, Ryan from wide on the wing, Darragh Kenny, and Twomey, a pass from McDonnell. Raheny replied superbly through Eoghan Smyth. Ryan hit his second, but the following three scores evened matters, Thomas Hurley, Conor Henry and Smyth again with a 65. Twomey restored Boden’s lead after a driving run, but Henry matched his effort with an impressive strike. The only goal of the game came next, Twomey the quickest to react to a breaking ball and his low ground stroke wide of goalman Ryan Coyne. The scoring continued, a Raheny free, Ryan again, and Boden’s David Gleeson, a whipper from the side-line off a Christie pass. In the mix was a sweet roll-lift by Pearse in the heat of traffic. The final scores of the half fell to Smyth (f) and Ryan’s fourth, a Gleeson pass. Half-time 1.08 to 0.08.

The second half opened with the visitors upping the pace, Smyth the first to add a white flag. Leddy came to the rescue for the home side, a quality pass to Cillian Kirwan, the first of his evening’s brace. The scoring continued, Conor Aherne for Raheny, Ryan after Leddy passed him, Raheny’s Aiden McAweeney, and Kirwan again. 1.11 to 0.11. Boden then went four up after Conor Dooley hit a huge free, but the remainder of the game was very much in the control of the visitors. Their next attack was a quality move that had Boden’s goalman Conor O’Donoghue fully stretched for a save of real importance. Raheny’s Liam Synott grabbed some reward for his side’s effort with a sweet point, but Boden’s Simon Lambert matched the score, a Dooley pass into space. Raheny then brought the margin to just the minimum after Hurley and Smyth bagged points. The final minutes of the game were frantic, and included a few “scrums”, Leddy digging one ball out of a ruck equal to anything that can be found at Aviva. Dooley pointed the final score, after Ryan was deemed to have been fouled.

Raheny deserve huge credit for their performance, just falling short in a low-scoring contest. Boden will feel that they have more in them, particularly in getting the passes to stick. Leddy and McDonnell were superb in defence, Christie worked his socks off in the engine-room and Ryan and Twomey made the most of their possessions. For Raheny, Hurley and Smyth had fine games.

Squad; Conor O’Donoghue, Rob Leddy, Sean McDonnell, Luke Mulligan-Lynch. Simon Lambert, Conor Dooley, Jack Lambert, Pearce Christie, Luke McDwyer, Fergal Ryan, Daragh Kenny, Niall Ryan, Ronan Twomey, David Gleeson, Cillian Kirwan, Stephen O’Connor, Eoin Behan, Barry McGuire, Alex Young.

Click here for more photos from John Kirwan