Junior Hurling Championship – quarter final

St Brigids 1-12 Lamh Dhearg 0-23

On a drab September Sunday, on a greasy Musgrave Park, the curtain finally came down on a remarkable and unprecedented season for the fledgling hurlers of Naomh Brid. Having already secured promotion to Division 3, the south Belfast outfit, backboned by five starting teenagers came up against a Hannahstown side with a little more big-match experience & lot more scoring forwards.

Over the hour Lamh Dhearg had ten different point takers while Naomh Brid had only three scoring sources.

And yet the home side held a slender lead ( 1-4 – 0-6 ) nearing the end of the opening quarter.

The game’s only goal came compliments of full forward John McGuckian in the fourth minute but owed much to a mazy run by the lively Oisin McDonnell who slipped his marker and delivered a delicious pass for McGuckian to bat home with an overhead smash.

 McDonnell and James Kelly continued to sow early havoc in the visitors defence sniping a further two points from play.

But the “ red hands “ reset and responded, in large part through the impressive Adam Murray; named at corner forward but given a roving commission, he landed eight first half points, seven from frees, to see his side lead by five at the break ( 1-5 – 0-13)

Incredibly for some fifty plus minutes ( from the 12th to the 65th min) Naomh Brid failed to register another score from open play, the Lisburn Road men were just too reliant on James Kelly who on the day landed 0-11 ( 10 frees)

By contrast Lamh Dhearg’s ability to find the posts with such consistency and such a spread of scorers was a massive determining factor in the final outcome.

In Adam Murray, midfielder Ciaran Boyd and centre  half back Paddy Mervyn, Lamh Dhearg had the games three stand out  performers, the latter two landed crucial  points at key times in the second half en route to a hard earned but thoroughly deserved junior hurling semi-final. They will take some beating.