Edenderry……3-01
Na Fianna…….1-02
Last Friday Edenderry’s under 14 hurlers recovered from their opening round defeat to Drumcullen, with a fantastic five point win over Na Fianna at home in the championship.
Early in the game Na Fianna put quite a bit of pressure on the Edenderry back line, and they created two goal chances, but two great saves from Aaron Holt kept them at bay. Oran Lawton nearly put his side in front, but unfortunately for him, his shot hit the post and went wide. However Leslie Nolan did put Edenderry in front shortly after that, when he dropped deep to win possession and he sent a long ball into the Na Fianna square which they failed to deal with and the ball ended up in the back of the net. Unfortunately the lead didn’t last too long as Na Fianna scored a goal of their own when one of their forwards finished the ball to the roof of the net, after some slack marking from the Edenderry defence. Edenderry responded brilliantly when Mikey McNeilis burst forward from midfield and then sent over a brilliant point. That score was soon followed by a second Edenderry goal, when Mikey Kane pulled brilliantly to send the ball past the Na Fianna goalie. Before halftime Na Fianna pulled a point back with an excellent shot to leave a goal between the teams at the break.
Halftime, Edenderry 2-01 Na Fianna 1-01.
At the break the Edenderry management introduced Patrick Rickard in place of Daniel Kane. The first score of the second half went to Edenderry, when Leslie Nolan scored a similar goal to his first, when he sent another long ball towards goal, this time the ball bounced in front of the goalie and skipped past him into the net. Edenderry then made three substitutions with Stephen Connolly, Kevin Beatty and Jack Kelly coming on for Mikey Kane, Jordan Hayes and Lee Hyland. At this stage of the game Na Fianna had Edenderry under a lot of pressure, but some brilliant defending with ferocious tackling from the likes of Ross Mangan, Dylan Maloney, Mark Abbott, Bobby Walsh, Robert O’Reilly and Oisin O’Neill, along with another save from Aaron Holt kept Na Fianna out. However Na Fianna did score a consolation point before the end to leave five points between the teams at the end.
Edenderry had fine performances from Aaron Holt, Bobby Walsh, Oisin O’Neill, Dylan Maloney, Ross Mangan, Mark Abbott, Oran Lawton and Leslie Nolan. This was their last championship game before the Feile na nGael this coming weekend.
Team: Aaron Holt; Robert O’Reilly, Bobby Walsh, Oisin O’Neill; Dylan Maloney, Ross Mangan, Mark Abbott; Mikey McNeilis (0-1), Oran Lawton; Leslie Nolan (2-0), Craig Monaghan, Lee Hyland, Daniel Kane, Jordan Hayes, Mikey Kane (1-0).
Substitutes: Patrick Rickard, Stephen Connolly, Kevin Beatty, Jack Kelly, Conor Farrell, Matthew Beatty, Cian Doyle, Callum Roche, Evan Walsh, Ciaran Farrell, Alex Kenny.
Referee: Ciaran Groome.
