County Senior Hurling Championship Round 3

Kilmallock  2-16    Ahane 4-11

If ever the Kilmallock senior hurling team needed a wake-up call then certainly this was it. We struggled badly in the early stages of the game and had Ahane’s shooting be a little more accurate then we would have been in bigger trouble. As it was, the lads hung in there, mainly through the scoring efforts of Graeme Mulcahy (1-3) and Kevin O’Donnell (1-1).  We managed to lead at half time 2-8 to 1-8, totally against the run of play. Robbie Egan had to retire through injury early in the game and was replaced by Kevin O’Mahony

Whatever was said at the interval had the desired effect as Kilmallock came out with all guns blazing and rattled off five consecutive points without reply from Ahane.

Things were now looking a lot better for Kilmallock as we went eight points clear which should have been a winning lead.  But for some unknown reason Ahane were left back into the game mainly through some missed scoring opportunities and poor defending.

Ahane made inroads into our lead and the concession of two sloppy goals had Ahane in front by two points with time running out. Eoin Ryan cut the deficit to one point but this was too little too late as Ahane held on for an unexpected  but deserved win.

Many of our players will need to take a long hard look at themselves as complacency was the order of the day with some of them. We are lucky that we are still in the championship but we will need to improve one hundred percent if we are to make further progress in the competition.

The team lined out as follows:

Barry Hennessy, Mark O’Loughlin, John Meade, Robbie Egan, Gavin O’Mahony 0-1, Bryan O’Sullivan, Eoin Ryan 0-7, Paudie O’Brien, Jake Mulcahy 0-1, John Kelly, Kevin O’Donnell 1-2, Graeme Mulcahy 1-3, Paudie O’Dwyer, Shane O’Donnell 0-1.

Substitutions:

Kevin O’Mahony 0-1 for Robbie Egan, Liam Hurley for John Meade and Derek O’Mahony for John Kelly.