Seniors secure top spot

 

On a surface with a slippery sheen, Crokes opened against the wind. After three minutes an Alan McCrabbe sideline cut sailed over the bar. From an Aidan Cleary feed, Kevin O’Loughlin levelled within sixty seconds. Hesitancy in clearing resulted in Chiaran’s doubling their score and a turned over puck out contributed to make it 0-3 to 0-1. 

 

In the tenth minute a superb James Burke run and strike shook the net. When, soon after, Kevin O’Loughlin pointed a free, some of the more enthusiastic Stillorgan fans harboured hopes their men might pull away. Their case was helped by Craobh missing a scoreable free, the saving of a 20 metre award and Ronan Walsh and Kevin O’Loughlin pointing to make it 1-4 to 0-3 on twenty one minutes. By half time Craobh had clawed their way back into the game and scored the two final points of the half.

 

Two wides to the Donnycarney men and one to Crokes presaged a thirty fifth minute free conversion for the former to put the minimum between the sides, 1-4 to 0-6. The teams exchanged a further wide apiece before Ross O’Carroll sent over. Immediately Craobh responded in kind. Another pair of wides was exchanged before O’Carroll repeated the trick in the fiftieth minute. Two minutes later a long range McCrabbe free pulled one back. Duets of wides were next swapped and a Craobh player went to the line for a second yellow card. Then a Kevin O’Loughlin 65 put the Kilmacud team two points to the good. The concession of a soft free on the puck out permitted McCrabbe narrow the gap. More or less straight after, another infringement allowed the Dublin midfielder tie the game at 1-7 to 0-10 from 20 metres. Following a sideline altercation the game closed on a Craobh puck out.

 

This was a game where the better stickmen were on the Kilmacud team but with a high wide count on both sides (13 for Crokes and 10 for their opponents) the scores that would have shown this on the scoreboard did not come. Throughout Crokes numbers 1 to 4 – Sweetnam, Corcoran, Lillis and McMorrow - held fast and coped with everything that came their way. Outside, Aodhan de Paor was commanding. Up front James Burke had a particularly strong first half showing, aided by Kevin O’Loughlin and Ronan Walsh but the Crokes lads will know they cannot allow opponents’ defences and midfields so much latitude in future games and hope to prevail.

 

Team:

 

R Sweetnam, N Corcoran (capt.), N Lillis, G McMorrow, D Byrne, A de Paor, R O’Loughlin, S Gillen, A Cleary, J Burke (1-0), H Gannon, F Armstrong, R Walsh (0-1), R O’Carroll (0-2), K O’Loughlin (0-4, f-2, 65-1). Subs B O’Rorke for A Cleary (44 mins), N Mulligan for D Byrne (55 mins), W Ryan for R O’Loughlin (58 mins).

 

For more reports see HERE and HERE

 

Note these reports incorrectly state Kilmacud Crokes substitutes as A Grogan for D Byrne and N Mulligan for R O’Loughlin. These substitutions should read N Mulligan for D Byrne and W Ryan for R O’Loughlin.