Drom & Inch 0-17
Éire Óg Annacarty 0-13
Our senior hurlers have got their first win on the board of this year’s county league with a four point victory against Éire Óg Annacarty. In what is proving to be a competitive group, Éire Óg recording a victory in their first round tie against Upperchurch/Drombane, Drom find themselves top of Group 2 this evening with 3 points.
On a clear, dry morning with a slight breeze favouring the men from the West in the first half, very little separated the sides, drawing level on 7 occasions by half time. Éire Óg hit the ground running with a well taken opening score from Tom Fox on the left wing 50 meters from goal. It didn’t take the Drom men long to find their groove, on 3 minutes, Kevin Butler, who gave a fine display from corner back, raced out of the defence with the ball and dispatched a hand pass to wing forward James Ryan, who levelled the match with a well taken point. Straight from the puck out, David Butler got onto the end of a long Drom clearance and raced towards the Éire Óg goal in an attempt to find the net. However, some fine last ditch defending denied Butler as the ball broke to Robbie Long, who met it first time to score Drom’s second point, unlucky not to be under the bar.
It was tit for tat with free taking for much of the half between David Butler and Éire Óg’s former county star, Conor O’Brien, who were laser accurate in their efforts. The sides were all square at half time at 8 points apiece with some excellent scores from Donal O’Dwyer, Richard O’Doherty and wing forward Ronan O’Brien for Éire Óg.
The first 10 minutes after the restart was tight and tense with some hard tackling being penalised by both sides with Butler and O’Brien continuing their free taking form. With 15 minutes to go, and nothing separating the sides, Drom & Inch upped the ante, Paul Kennedy scored two points in quick succession to add to the white flag raised in the first half & substitute Shane Hassett struck a long range effort to put Drom 2 in front with 10 minutes remaining. Conor O’Brien kept Éire Óg in contention with two frees but Drom had too much for Westerners in the closing minutes with a Mikey Connors free, another long range effort from Hassett and a converted free from Kennedy. Tom Fox had one last ditched effort to salvage something from the game was equalled with a fantastic save from goalkeeper, Paul Connors.
Overall it was a much improved performance from the Kildangan match and a fully deserved victory for the men in Green. Another solid defensive display from Drom proved vital in not only stifling the Éire Óg attack, but also assisting midfield at setting up offensive efforts. Upperchurch/Drombane are the next opponents in the league which will no doubt be a local derby not to be missed.
Drom & Inch team and scorers
1. Paul Connors
2. Michael Purcell
3. Liam Ryan
4. Kevin Butler
5. Michael Campion
6. James Woodlock
7. Enda Walsh
8. Jamie Bergin
9. Brendan Larkin
10. James Ryan (0-01)
11. Micheál Butler
12. Paul Kennedy (0-04, 0-01 frees)
13. Mikey Connors (0-01, free)
14. David Butler (0-08, 0-07 frees, 0-01 65)
15. Robbie Long (0-01)
Subs:
21. Shane Hassett (0-02) for Bergin (Inj) (12 min)
22. Michael Everard for D. Butler (47 min)
18. Philip Looby for J. Ryan (49 min)
