Heartbreak for Faughs in Senior Two replay
By Daire Walsh
THE final scoreline wasn’t a true reflection on how the game panned out as a whole, but Faughs ultimately fell to a 0-25 to 0-15 defeat at the hands of Whitehall Colmcille in a Dublin Senior Two Hurling Championship final replay at Parnell Park on Saturday.
Level at 0-12 apiece in the early stages of the second half, the Templeogue side were subsequently reduced to 14 players following James O’Brien’s sending off. In his absence, Whitehall pushed on with Paddy Spellacy, dual star Eoghan O’Donnell and Dublin senior footballer Cormac Costello contributing a combined tally of 0-18.
Although Carl O’Mahony (0-6) and Fergal Heavey (0-3) contributed some excellent scores for Faughs, Johnny Greville’s men came off second best in the end.
Nevertheless, with promotion to next year’s Dublin Senior One Hurling Championship already assured in advance of their drawn encounter against Whitehall on October 23, it still goes down as a good year overall for the Tymon Park outfit.
Heavey got the ball rolling for Faughs with an opening minute point and while Eoghan O’Donnell responded at the opposite end, Liam Mostyn edged the southsiders back in front.
There was very little to separate the teams throughout the opening period, however, and Spellacy immediately got Whitehall back on level terms.
Either side of Spellacy and Eoghan O’Donnell finding the target for Colmcilles, Mostyn and O’Mahony did likewise for Faughs. Enda O’Donnell (brother of Eoghan) also worked his way onto the scoresheet for the northside outfit, but they couldn’t afford to rest on their laurels.
Following an O’Mahony brace, corner-back Sean McDonald chipped in with a superb point from distance. Spellacy (two) and Costello also found the range in a hectic period of play, before Heavey, O’Mahony and Ciaran Brennan all raised white flags to give Faughs some breathing space.
Heavey later posted his third point of the tie, but it was Whitehall who held a slender edge at the interval. Supplementing 0-3 from Spellacy, Eoghan O’Donnell split the uprights to leave the Collins Avenue men in the ascendancy on a scoreline of 0-12 to 0-11.
O’Mahony’s fifth point on the resumption had the sides level for an astonishing 11th time, but the red card issued to O’Brien did affect Faughs’ chances of success. They were also facing into a tricky breeze, albeit it wasn’t as strong as previous outings in the Donnycarney venue this year.
Eoghan O’Donnell and Sean Kellett posted fine points as Whitehall looked to capitalise on their numerical advantage, although a close-range O’Mahony free left the bare minimum between the teams (0-14 to 0-3) heading into the final-quarter.
Whilst there could be no faulting their effort as they sought to stem the tide, the only scores that came the way of Faughs in the closing stages was a point from play by substitute Jake Moore and a Conor O’Shea free.
By contrast, Daire Gray, Niall O’Connor, Spellacy, Luke McCarthy, Costello, Enda O’Donnell and Conor Sheedy were amongst those to shoot between the posts as Whitehall eased themselves towards the second-tier crown.