Late majors see South net opening day spoils
Daire Walsh – 28 February 2013 10:40 AM
LATE goals from Brian Moulds and John Murphy were crucial in Sancta Maria College on Monday afternoon, as Dublin South got their Leinster Juvenile Hurling ‘A’ League campaign off to a perfect start with an impressive 3-10 to 1-9 victory over Kilkenny CBS.
With Brian Smith and Cillian Byrne providing plenty of steel in defence, and John Carthy producing an industrious display in their forward division, South were able to build a solid platform in the opening period, with a series of fine scores from Eoin Foley helping the hosts towards a 0-7 to 1-0 lead at the mid-way stage.
Fionn O’Driscoll went on to register South’s first goal of the game, but the Noresiders developed enough momentum to restore parity by the 55th minute.
Indeed, CBS seemed to be the more likely winners at this point, but Mike O’Dwyer’s side had different ideas, as 2-1 without reply (the majors coming from Moulds and Murphy) ensured Dublin South’s success.
Dublin North also enjoyed a fine start to their league campaign against St Peter’s of Wexford in Whitehall Colmcilles GAA last Friday, although it wasn’t always plain sailing, as two early goals gave the Slaneysiders the perfect platform on which to build.
Martin Rabbitte’s charges kept well in touch as the opening period progressed, though, and excellent scores from Peter Feeney, Tom Flaherty and Conor Burke ensured that they had reduced the deficit to four (2-5 to 0-7) in time for the interval.
With the wind to their advantage after the restart, and the half-back division of Fionn Boland, Eanna McDomhnaill and Conor Gibson starting to dominate, Feeney and substitute Conor Carberry were able to find the back of the Peter’s net at crucial junctures.
David Hawkshaw and Johnny McGurk were also starting to exert their influence in the middle of the field, and with full-back Donal Ryan also producing a memorable defensive display, the Metropolitan outfit were able to record a hard-earned 3-12 to 3-8 triumph.