St. Patrick's lose out in south minor hurling "B" semi-final

In kilsheelin on Monday evening last St. Patrick’s played Killenaule in the south minor “B” hurling semi-final. Although the rain stayed away for the game, the going was heavy and the conditions were very slippery. Mark Slattery opened the scoring for St. Patrick’s with a well taken point. Four unanswered points from Killenaule put them in the driving seat before Mark Mullally landed a goal from a long range free for St. Pat’s. However Killenaule were getting on top around centre field and were clocking up the points. Points from frees from Mark Mullally kept our lads in touch and a well taken point from Conor Cuddihy left us only trailing by 3 points at halftime. St. Pat’s fought back well in the second half and were rewarded for their effort when Mark Slattery scored a goal after some good passing movement by the St. Pat’s forwards. Playing better hurling now St. Pat’s were getting on top and when James Buckley took a great pass from his brother Aidan and put the sliother in the back of the Killenaule net, St.Pat’s were back in the lead. With ten minutes left and a point ahead St. Patrick’s had chances to stretch their lead and these misses were to prove very costly at the final whistle. Killenaule gave it everything and got back level with only a couple of minutes to play. The game could have went either way in the final minutes but unfortunately for St.Pat’s it was Killenaule who finished the stronger and scored two points to book their place in the south final. Overall Killenaule were  physically stronger than St.Pat’s who had six players under the age of sixteen which was probably the difference in the end. William O Brien had a solid game at full back and was well assisted by Ivan Brett, Conor Clancy and Mark Mullally who scored a personnel tally of 1-6 from well taken frees. Brendan Gleeson battled hard in centre field for the hour and up front Mark Slattery, Conor Cuddihy and the Buckley brothers provided the scores for St. Patrick’s. Although our players were very disappointed to have lost the game they can hold their heads high as it’s a great achievement for our club to be able to compete at this level against senior clubs like Killenaule. We thank the teams management Johnny Moroney, Dan Gleeson and Colm Dunne for the work they put in to preparing the team.