Junior A's Late Charge Falls Just Short
For the hardy, Silverpark 2 hosted a full blooded Saturday evening (14th May 2011) Junior A second round robin championship group match between Kilmacud Crokes and Na Fianna. The strong wind from the Sunshine Home end played a crucial part – the critical difference being Na Fianna’s greater return with the first half advantage.
Only two well taken goals from Michael Dalton kept the hosts in it in the first quarter. Just before the second, at 1-7 to 1-1, matters were looking grim. By the eighteenth minute it was 1-8 to 2-2. Then full back Paddy Igoe made a vital intervention and the resulting visitor’s point was a small price to pay for keeping the Kilmacud side within striking distance. There followed a long pause as a Na Fianna man received attention and had to retire. When play resumed the pressure remained on the homesters whose defence was called upon to save a penalty with the follow up going wide. In the final eight minutes of phase one the Kilmacud side upped its performance with Ger Geoghegan, Mark Lynskey and Paddy Rath asking questions of the Na Fianna defence. During this time Dara Burke put over three frees to take his tally to five from the placed ball and the thirty minutes ended 1-10 to 2-5
The Moibhi Road men pointed within a sixty seconds of the restart. Five minutes later Conor Caulfield replied in kind. Notwithstanding the best efforts of Richie Tighe, Paddy Igoe, Peter McCague and John Ross Hunt, Na Fianna put three balls over before substitute Ronan Walsh raised a white flag from distance after forty two minutes. There were no further scores until the fiftieth minute when the northsiders extended their lead. Two minutes on Paddy Rath had a good over. This was followed by three similar scores from frees by Burke. Na Fianna broke up the field to make it 1-16 to 2-11. An injury time point from play by Burke ended the scoring with the minimum between the sides, 1-16 to 2-12.
There was much to commend this Crokes display, especially the resilience and fighting spirit on view. With fewer second half misses we might have seen a different outcome. While the team and management will be disappointed not to have chalked up any point from their two championship games to date, repetition of this form will make Crokes a handful for any team and qualification for the knock out stages is still well within their capabilities. For photos see HERE or click on the photo below.
Team: R Tighe, P Ryan, P Igoe, P McCague, C O’Brien, JR Hunt, D Staunton, G Geoghegan, B Brennan, M Lynskey, D Burke (0-9, f-8), S O’Connor, C Caulfield (0-1), P Rath (0-1), M Dalton (2-0). Subs: R Walsh (0-1) for D Staunton (9 mins, inj), S Canny for C O’Brien (22 mins) and A Byrne for R Walsh (48 mins)
