Leinster Minor Hurling Championship – Tier 2
Pics by Bert Trowlen
A strong finish by Offaly ended Antrim’s chances in their opening game in the Leinster Minor Hurling Championship, Tier 2, at Dundalk on Satruday as the Faithful County boys turned on the style to make it two games out of two in their group.
When left half forward James McDonald grabbed the Safron’s second goal 11 minutes into the second half things looked promising for the Antrim side. However Offaly, with the strong breeze at their backs, seemed to find another gear and driven on by team captain Odhran Fletcher they hit 2 goals and 9 point in the final 18 minutes to just a single point in reply to win by 12.
Antrim got off to a bad start when right half forward Conor Thornton goaled in the opening minute and team captain Fletcher added a point thirty seconds late. Thing looked bleak for the Ulster champions but with the elements in their favour they hit back immediately and three point from Sean Smith, James McDonald and Jay McAlonan close the gap to a single point after four minutes. Things really took off when corner forward Cadhan Crawford fired home a fantastic goal soon afterwards and when the excellent James McDonnell added two quick points they were four points clear in the eighth minute. (1-05 to 1-01)
They suffered a setback when Offaly corner forward Ruairi Woods grabbed his team’s second goal but the Saffrons still held the upper hand and were 1-08 to 2-03 ahead when things began to turn. They suffered a bad blow when goal scorer Cadhan Crawford was forced to retire injured on 24 minutes and things got worse two minutes later when a sideline cut by Fletcher deceived the Antrim keeper and ended up in the back of the net.
Two points down at half time (3-05 to 1-09) Antrim started the second half well and Sean Smyth pulled a point back. They had a couple of good goal chances and were unfortunate not to get frees on a couple of occasions, but when Sean Smyth was brought down close to goal on eleven minutes James McDonnell fired the resultant penalty to the net to put them back in front. Offaly came back with two point to regain the lead but Antrim were still dangerous and when Christy Leach cut through on goal he was taken out by the Offaly goalkeeper James Carroll, but despite protests from the Antrim sideline the match referee played on.
From that stage on Offaly took control and added five more unanswered points. On 48 minutes the Faithful county were awarded a penalty which also saw Antrim corner back Aaron Quinn receive a black card, which left the Antrim fans enraged wondering why the same rule hadn’t applied at the other end earlier. Fletcher fired home Offaly’s fourth goal from the penalty and Antrim had a mountain to climb, as Offaly pushed on, adding goal number five through Ruairi Woods five minutes later.
A disappointing ending for Gabriel Crawford and his team but they can take heart from their play for good parts of the game. They are out again over the next two weekends against Meath and Wicklow so there is still something left to play for.
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