Intermediate Hurling Championship Quarter Final
Carey Faughs 2-20 Glenariffe Oisins 1-10
By John McIlwaine There are games that have no logic to them. This was one of those games. Glenariffe cruising along, nine points to the good leading by 2-6 to 0-3 with twenty two minutes gone and apparently cruising through the semi-final. Carey struggling to get a foothold, making no impression and seeming set for a quarter final exit. When Conan McToal sent over a Glenariffe point in the twenty second minute any gambling man would have put their money on the Oisins, even though they had the benefit of a fresh breeze. Unbelievably they would score just one more point during the next 28 minutes play, and only four more in total, while Carey scored at will to run out winners by 13 points, a turnaround of 19 points. Another one of those transformations you had to see to believe.
Glenariffe set off like a steam train and were a point up inside two minutes when Kevin McDonnell split the Carey posts, and they were two ahead soon afterwards when Alex O’Boyle converted a close range free. Eight minutes in and the gap was out to five when O’Boyle finished neatly to the Carey net and it was out to six by the eleventh minute when O’Boyle hit his third score in a row.
Carey eventually opened their account in the twelfth minute with a point from Sean McLoughlin and when Martin Hunter added another a minute later it looked like they were starting to get going. However Glenariffe regained control and after Dan McKillop and Randal McDonnell added points, McKillop broke through for a superb goal in the twenty first minute and Conan McToal tagged on a point, all this in reply to a single Carey point. The lead was 2-6 to 0-3 at this stage and you felt the Oisins were about to press the cruise control button, but how wrong you would have been.
Admittedly the breeze had calmed to a mere whisper by this stage but you felt Carey had to get a score or two if they were to stay in contention. Once they started there was no stopping them as they hit seven without reply. Sean McLoughlin started the run with one from play in the 24th minute, Cathal ‘Doug’ McAuley added one from a free a minute later, then Patrick Murphy in the 28th, Patrick Butler in the 29th Martin Hunter in the 30th before two more from Doug McAuley frees in the 33rd and 34th closed the nine point gap to just two by the time half-time whistle sounded.
When substitute Ciaran Leech got the opening score of the second half you wondered if the break had done the Oisins good, but they would not score again for the next nineteen minutes, by which time Carey were out of sight. James ‘Rocket’ Black, who had been an injury doubt going into the game, and who had been unusually quiet during the first half, began to hit his stride and when his free from sixty metres deceived Oisins keeper Seanan McToal to end up in the back of the net it was clear it was going to be the Faughs day. Rocket added two more points, while Shay Hunter, Patrick Butler and Sean McLoughlin hit two apiece to take the game away from Glenariffe’s grasp. Niall Murray and Alex O’Boyle pulled a couple back for the Oisins but they could make no real impression on the Carey lead and as the Faughs finished with a flourish they got a late goal through Shay Hunter. The Faughs now face Tir na nÓg in the semi-final, a team they have played at this stage for the past two years.
Carey Faughs
S McGinn, E Hill, S McBride, D Hill, M McVeigh, J McCouaige, J McBride, P Butler, P Murphy, J Black, N Hunter, S Hunter, S McLoughlin, C McAuley, M Hunter
Glenariffe Oisins
S McToal, P Burns, C McAllister, M Haughey, S O’Connor, M Gettins, A Cosgrove, T Quinn, K McDonnell, D McKillop, C McToal, R McDonnell, A O’Boyle, N Murray, P McDonnell
Referee – Owen Elliott All Saints)
