Go Ahead AHL 2

Ballyboden St Endas 0 18  St. Sylvesters 0 10

“Tis a whistler of a breeze out there, and sure to test the free-takers”, the greeting salvo from a man of experience, none other than Noel Callan, one of the few to attend the opening league game for Boden’s senior B hurlers. Noel is one of Boden’s best supporters and will rarely fail to attend a Sunday morning game at HQ. This was a game without the excitement of goals or even much activity in the inner sanctum, but this did not take from the pleasure of attending.

A quick glance at the scoring list shows that the dominant marksman was Boden’s Mark Lambert on nine points in a mix of fine free-taking and scores from play. He was particularly to the fore during the second half when Sylvester’s were penalised several times in the scoring area and allowed Lambert to show his best form with a perfect record from several angles. Boden’s work-rate played a huge part in creating opportunities with Cillian Kirwan particularly active. His own reward did not come until the last few minutes when he pointed from the forty.

The visitors opened the scoring when mid-fielder Luke Hughes fired over from out on the white-wash, but that was quickly cancelled out by Lambert from an equally difficult position. Boden’s Darragh Kenny doubled the home tally only to see his effort matched by speedy corner-man Dan Murphy from a free. Boden’s Tommy Glynn provided the next quality ball for Shane Kennedy to send Boden into the lead. More points quickly followed for Boden with Jonathan O’Driscoll and Conor Robinson bringing the score to 5 to 2. Murphy and Conor Buckley added to Sylvesters tally, but within a few minutes Kennedy profited from the perfect pass from Fergal Ryan followed by Kenny out wide. The remainder of the half brought Lambert unerringly to the free spot after Sylvesters Eoghan Buckley had superbly split the posts. Half-time 9 to 5.

Like the first half, the visitors were first to score in the second period, but O’Driscoll chipped in with a trademark score. Murphy again added from a free, but Lambert popped up with a superb effort. The pair traded points from frees, and Lambert continued his fine form with a brace, also from placed balls. Sylvesters stopped the rot with the score of the game from Paul Farrelly. The last five minutes produced more Boden scores with the pick being from corner-back Sean O’Donnell who cheekily moved into the forward zone determined to show that the foot-soldiers could match anything that the glory-boys could do. O’Driscoll had the final say with another quality point.

Lambert stood out in this fine sporting contest refereed superbly by Karl O’Brien and supported by assistant referee Dave Conway, which proved that two are better than one any day. In defence Karl Reddy was his usual solid self and Fergal Ryan was always alert for raiding Sylvesters attackers. Glynn and Conor Kennedy were a good combination in mid-field, breaking up the play and setting up some defence-splitting passes.

Squad; Ronan Sharkey, Sean O’Donnell, Keith McCarron, Karl Reddy, Fergal Ryan, Conor Robinson, Jack Lambert, Conor Kennedy, Tommy Glynn, Jonathan O’Driscoll, Finnian McDonagh, Cillian Kirwan, Shane Kennedy, Darragh Kenny, Mark Lambert, Eoin McKenna, Rory Hester, Gareth Crowley.

Click here for photos from John Kirwan