Walsh excels as Ardclough destroy Confey
UPMC SHC PRELIMINARY ROUND
ARDCLOUGH 5-16
CONFEY 1-9
Daire Walsh at Manguard Park
Eoghan Walsh bagged a magnificent hat-trick of goals at Manguard Park on Sunday to help propel Ardclough towards a convincing triumph over Confey in a UPMC Kildare Senior Hurling Championship preliminary round clash.
Finishing the contest with 3-2 to his name, Walsh was a constant threat to the Confey defence throughout the course of the action.
He was ably-assisted on the day by both Sean Whelan (0-8) and Michael Small (2-0) as Ardclough sent out a serious statement of intent for the 2023 campaign. Whereas they will find themselves in a four-team winners’ group in the next phase of the Kildare SHC, Confey will move into a losers’ group along with Celbridge, Clane and Maynooth.
Ben O’Boyle (1-2), Frank Bass (0-3) and Paul Divilly (0-2) did their utmost to keep their side in contention, but the Leixlip-based side struggled to curtail the pace and power of a well-drilled Ardclough outfit.
While it was Confey who initially got the scoring underway with a point from O’Boyle, Walsh shook the net for the first time on six minutes.
The elusive inside forward also split the uprights in response to a similar score by Frank Bass, before an Aidan Ryan free cut the Confey deficit to a minimum in the 12th minute.
Ardclough were slowly beginning to seize upon a wind advantage, however, and successive points from Whelan (three) and Tony Spain offered them a firm stranglehold on the proceedings. Bass interrupted this scoring sequence with a pointed free, only for Ardclough to once again underline their credentials by recording 3-4 without reply.
Supplementing a Small major, Walsh fired home on 26 and 30 minutes to complete his hat-trick. Paul Divilly finally added to Clane’s tally in first half stoppage-time, though Whelan quickly knocked over another free to give Ardclough an unassailable 4-10 to 0-5 buffer at the break.
It was always likely that they were going to find scores harder to come by on the restart, but Ardclough nevertheless remained 17 points in front when right half-forward Whelan cancelled out a place-ball contribution from his opposite number Bass.
Yet O’Boyle did raise a cheer from the Confey supporters when he angled a shot beyond the reach of opposition netminder Finn Leech on 38 minutes, and with Neil Ryan and Divilly on hand to register points, they were at least attempting to keep Ardclough on their toes.
However, the result was never in doubt and Arclough established another purple patch that yielded points from Cillian Burke, Whelan (three) and Niall Devane.
A second Small goal also arrived with just five minutes of normal time remaining, in advance of Confey wing-back Kevin Chan being issued with a straight red card. The hard-working O’Boyle did add a late point for his side, but it could do little to dampen the mood within the Ardclough camp.
Scorers: Ardclough: Eoghan Walsh 3-2, Sean Whelan 0-8 (5 frees), Michael Small 2-0, Martin Fitzgerald, Niall Devane, Jonathon Reeves, Patrick O’Malley, Tony Spain, Cillian Burke 0-1 each. Confey: Ben O’Boyle 1-2, Frank Bass 0-3 (2 frees), Paul Divilly 0-2, Aidan Ryan (free), Neil Ryan 0-1 each.
ARDCLOUGH: Finn Leech; Sean Buggy, David Collins, Kevin Sexton; Liam Hanley, Martin Fitzgerald, Aaron Casey; Drew Costello, Niall Devane; Sean Whelan, Patrick O’Malley; Tony Spain, Michael Small, Eoghan Walsh. Subs: Cillian Burke for Reeves (43), Peter Coleman for Spain (53), Ronan Geoghan for Fitzgerald (55), Ben Reddan for O’Malley (60).
CONFEY: Shane Quinn; Ian Baker, Anto Hoare, Enda Bannon; Eoin Lynch, Sean Leamy, Kevin Chan; Fiachra Lynch, Aidan Ryan; Frank Bass, Ronan McNamara, Kieran Kilbane; Aidan Crean, Ben O’Boyle, Paul Divilly. Subs: Neil Ryan for Lynch (9), Brian Keane for Kilbane (22).
Referee: Owen Murphy.