Killavullen advance to the Hurling championship Quarter Final
June 30, 2019
Killavullen overcame the concession of 3 goals in the first half to win against Buttevant by 4 points in the 3rd round of the Junior A Hurling championship, in a game played in the excellent Castletownroche venue, earlier tonight, June 30th.
Buttevant were first to score in the 4th minute, and doubled their advantage with another point in the 6th minute, and pushed further ahead with a pointed free in the 8th minute. Killavullen were playing the ball through the lines but you need every ball to stick playing that way, and it was not until the 9th minute that we opened our account through Barry Murphy. Buttevant replied immediately in the same minute but Padraig Looney sent over a lovely point on the run, to half the deficit. Buttevant extended their lead in the 15th minute only for Liam Cronin, who was very influential in the middle of the field, to score a free that he had earned himself. Mark Linehan and Kevin O Keeffe in the Buttevant forward lines were proving hard to contain, with their physical strength and no little hurling ability important for their own team. Mark scored a fine point in the 17th minute and got a good goal, when he out muscled the Killavullen rear guard in the 18th minute. Buttevant’ s rear guard twice had come to their teams rescue with last ditch defending that pushed goal ward shots out for 65 Metre shot, one of which we converted in the 16th minute after Charlie Lillis ‘s goal bound effort had struck a Buttevant defender.
Killavullen dallied in possession in their back line, and Buttevant dispossessed us, and got in for another goal in the 20th minute, again from Mark Linehan. Liam Cronin shipped a heavy challenge in the 22nd minute in catching a high ball, and from the resultant free, Mickey O Connor stepped up and fired it over the bar. Buttevant were awarded a penalty in the 25th minute when Kevin O Keeffe was bundled over in the square and the penalty was duly converted to open up a sizeable lead, 3-06 to 0-05 but importantly, Killavullen rallied strongly before half time with Eoghan Buckley, Sean O Regan, Billy Norris and Charlie Lillis prominent. Padraig Looney got another fine point for us in the 26th minute, followed by a goal scored by the ace poacher that is Mr. Murphy to begin our revival. Ian O Gorman was strong and scored for us in the 27th minute followed by a lovely point from Liam Cronin in the 28th. Buttevant got a point back before Barry got the last score of the half to leave us trailing at the break by 1-09 to 3-07.
Strong words at half time worked the oracle as immediately from the throw in for the second half, Killavullen sought to play the game on the front foot. However our shooting was wayward and we had four clear point scoring chances off target before Buttevant extended their lead in the 8th minute. Barry scored a point for us in the 9th before he repeated the same dose in the 10th minute, and again in the 15th - all from frees where our forwards were working extremely hard. The Killavullen crowd in the stand were getting more and more vocal and Padraig Looney got rapturous applause for a lovely point in the 20th minute, to bring our tally to 1-13, against 3-08 to leave us only a point behind and momentum in our favour. Our full backs were clearing their lines unceremoniously at this stage and when Barry equalised for us in the 21st minute; it sent the large Killavullen following into paroxysms of delight. Buttevant had a player dismissed for a in discretion in front of the stands, never a good idea when the opposing team are more numerous in the crowd. Barry got another point for us in the 22nd minute and another a minute later when the substitutes that we had introduced into the forward line worked hard to block some clearances. We stretched our lead out to 2 points when a lovely diagonal ball from Eoghan Buckley left Barry in acres of space and he duly capitalised. Jack O Connor added a nice point after a sharp spin in the 24th minute and Ian O Gorman got the final score of the game in the 25th minute.
Buttevant tried valiantly to preserve their junior hurling championship action for 2019, but our defence stayed focused and one ball that got through the packed defence was dealt with, by Mick in goals. The concern would be the wayward shooting over the hour when we shot 15 wides in total, but that can be sharpened up by our management team, ahead of the quarter final against our neighbouring parish of Doneraile, on the week end of the 21st July .
The team and those that scored were;
- Michael Cronin
- Pa Angland
- Pa Sheahan
- Fionn Magner
- Sean O Regan
- Billy Norris
- Paul O Sullivan
- Eoghan Buckley
- Liam Cronin (0-04, 0-02F)
- Charlie Lillis
- Ian O Gorman (0-02)
- Mikey O Connor (0-01F)
- Padraig Looney (0-03)
- Barry Murphy (1-08, 0-04F)
- Jack O Connor (0-01)
Substitutes;
- Mike Fresh for Paul O Sullivan
- Liam Fox for Ian O Gorman
- Gary Lane for Barry Murphy