Cumann Pheadaír Naofa 2-3 V Carryduff 1-1
Having lost their last few games the u12 hurlers travelled to Carryduff in anticipation of putting the last few weeks behind them and get the moral boosting win they very much deserved.
Having been seriously handicapped to the no soloing rule imposed by the referee hampered the blues running game, thus a change of tactic meant that the sliotar had to be played in directly to forwards Jarlath Donnelly and Ben Lock. Carryduff did not let the Warrenpoint lads get anything easy and could have taken the lead were it not for some solid defensive play from Caolan Freer, Niall Rice and Oisín Ruane, all of who played extremely well. The opening score of the game didn’t come until almost have way through the half when the sliotar fell to the feet of Jarlath Donnelly who pulled hard and fast, the result being a goal for the blues. When Darragh Austin was fouled in possession the resulting 30m free from Liam O’Connor sailed over the bar to increase the blues lead to four. With the addition of Mickey Keohane to the team of late the blues certainly had an added potency in the attack and although still very young he showed that he is well capable of the step up in standard. In the half back line Matthew Duffy and Tiernan Kelly shone out and linked up well with their midfielders to keep the pressure on Carryduff.
Up front James Sweeney battled hard and was a constant threat whenever he had the ball, also Ben Lock came extremely close to increasing the blues lead with a close range effort on goal. Half time Warrenpoint 1-1 Carryduff 0-0.
At the start of the second half Carryduff shocked the blues with two well taken scores the first a 30m free and the second a well taken goal as the blues defence were caught out for the only time in the game. The game was now level and could have gone either way, but when Ruairí McIntyre received a great Crossfield pass from Mark Campbell he drove the sliotar goal wards from 20m out only to see it glance over the bar for the lead point. The blues were now back on top and looking to put the game away and when the sliotar next went up the field it was the persistence of Jarlath Donnelly as he chased the sliotar and having twice been blocked succeeded on his third attempt at tucking it away. Another excellent point from Ruairí McIntyre ensured that the blues came away with the victory.
Scorers: Jarlath Donnelly 2-0, Ruairí McIntyre 0-2, Liam O’Connor 0-1
