Farrell’s men pushed all the way by Wexford champs
BY NIALL SHERRY, SPORTS EDITOR
SPORTSEDITOR@KILKENNYOBSERVER.IE
AIB Leinster Club Junior Hurling Championship Final 2024
St. Lachtain’s 3-8 Castletown Liam Mellows 2-10
SETU Carlow, Referee: Brian Kearney (Kildare)
After sixty-odd minutes of pulsating action at SETU Carlow, St Lachtain’s were crowned AIB Leinster Club Junior Hurling Champions 2024 thanks to the narrowest of victories over a gallant Castletown Liam Mellows. On another day, the result might have gone the other way and it was a game that neither side probably deserved to be on the losing end of things, but as usual there had to be a winner and thankfully, it was the Kilkenny side that got over the line.
The Freshford side will now face off against Sligo’s Easkey in the All-Ireland semi-final this Sunday at 1:30pm in Duggan Park, Ballinasloe.
The Freshford side will now face off against Sligo’s Easkey in the All-Ireland semi-final this Sunday at 1pm in Duggan Park, Ballinasloe.
As the old saying goes, goal’s win games, and the Noresiders raised three green flags in the provincial decider, James Maher and Shane Donelly hit the majors in the opening period, while sub Cian Dawson notched arguably the most important score of the game, nine minutes from the end of an enthralling encounter.
Steven Farrell made one change to his starting line-up, with Liam Hickey coming in for Padraig Donnelly, and this move reaped serious dividends as the latter hit 0-3 in Carlow. The Wexford champions got off to the perfect start, with a goal in the opening minute. Some great work by Doran Daly O’Toole saw the ball worked to Jack Higgins who created the angle to fire past a wrong-footed Darren Brennan in the St Lachtain’s goal. The Castletown players and supporters were still celebrating when their opponents’ levelled matters. The Kilkenny side worked the restart to Brendan Quinn who sent a booming pass in the direction of corner forward Shane Donnelly. The No.15 collected the ball and slipped a lovely handpass to his fellow corner man James Maher who despite the angle struck a real daisy cutter past Liam Mellows netminder, Gavin Stamp.
The first point of the game came via a placed ball effort from Castletown’s Eoin Cullen, who used the wind advantage to great effect as his free sailed between the posts. The response from the Marble City men was certainly emphatic. A lovely little bit of interplay on the right side of the pitch resulted in the ball being passed to Liam Hickey who beat his man, before powering towards goal. The dangerous Hickey scanned for options and batted his inch perfect pass to Shane Donnelly, who steadied himself before rifling the sliotar to the Wexford side’s net. Just over four minutes of play in SETU and three majors registered in the Leinster Junior Final.
Castletown Liam Mellows reduced the deficit with a second placed ball of the afternoon from Eoin Cullen. Cathal O’Leary then struck a long range placed ball of his own ahead of another well struck free from Cullen. One of Liam Mellows best performers on the day, Ross Cody then set up the on running Jack Higgins who split the St Lachtain’s posts for a nice score. The Wexford contingent in attendance enjoyed that point and were definitely winning the supporters battle for noise supremacy! Every misplaced pass or error by a player in black and amber was greeted by cheers from those in Castletown’s corner.
Former Kilkenny County man James Maher then went on a strong run which got the finish it deserved to edge his side ahead after 21 minutes at the Carlow venue. If this was a decent score, the next was one of the points of the game. The impressive Ross Cody striking over which saw a further rise in the volume of his team’s supporters. Freshford’s centre forward, Paddy Killeen then sent over a quality point to nudge the bookies favourites ahead. Eoin Cullen then tagged on a brace of placed balls before Kildare’s Brian Kearney sounded the short whistle, as Castletown Liam Mellows headed to the changing rooms one point to the good, as their Boisterous supporters roared them off the pitch.
Another barrage of noise signaled the return of the Castletown Liam Mellows players ahead of the resumption of play. Just like the opening period, the Wexford champions got the scoreboard moving, courtesy of a fine point of play from full-forward Eoin Cullen. Cathal O’Leary then sent over his second effort of the game after his goalkeeper Darren Brennan had got things moving quickly at the other end. The ever-threatening Jack Higgins was then fouled and this gave Cullen the opportunity to restore his sides 2-point lead.
If Jack Higgins was the livewire for Castletown Liam Mellows, Liam Hickey was his nemesis on the St Lachtain’s team. The talented stickman fired over his first of the decider to leave just the bare minimum between the finalists. Steven Farrell then made his first change, with Cian Dawson entering the fray in place of Darragh Maher. Tommy Dixon’s charges then got a real grip on the decider when his side hit raised their second green flag of the final. All the hard work was done by the electric Jack Higgins while the finish was applied by one of their ten dual stars, Robbie Brooks. The Wexford men now led by four points, but would go on to register just one more score in the remainder of the game.
St Lachtain’s needed to hit back and they did just that thanks to a second point of the final from Liam Hickey. A further two changes for the Kilkenny champions then came. John Fitzpatrick and Padraig Donnelly replacing Paddy Killeen and James Maher, both replaced players, not moving the best as they left the action. The lively Liam Hickey then notched his third point, taking possession before turning and firing over. The Noresiders built on this with the next score, a lovely effort from the talented Alexander Rafter and then hit the decisive score of the half with just over 9 minutes of normal time remaining. Substitute Cian Dawson was on hand to apply the major finish to edge Steven Farrell’s outfit 2-points ahead.
Castletown midfielder Ross Cody then rifled over his second point of the provincial decider to leave just one score between the sides as the announcer at SETU advised of three minutes of additional time. The Wexford champions threw everything at their opponents as they sought an equalising score, and they did have chances, a couple of placed ball attempts from Eoin Cullen that missed the target while they and many others thought they might have been awarded a free deep in injury time, but referee Brian Kearney waved play on, something to be fair, that the Kildare whistler had done throughout the provincial decider. A matter of seconds later, he blew for full-time, St Lachtain’s Kilkenny, AIB Leinster Club Junior Hurling Champions 2024.
St Lachtain’s: James Maher, Shane Donnelly (1-1 each); Cian Dawson (1-0); Liam Hickey (0-3); Cathal O’Leary (0-2, 0-1 free); Paddy Killeen, Alexander Rafter (0-1 each)
Castletown Liam Mellows: Eoin Cullen (0-7, 0-6 frees); Jack Higgins (1-1); Robbie Brooks (1-0); Ross Cody (0-2)
St Lachtain’s: Darren Brennan; Shane Dawson, Criomhthann Bergin, Simon Rafter; Alexander Rafter, Brian Kennedy, Cathal Hickey; Brendan Quinn, Mark Donnelly; Darragh Maher, Paddy Killeen, Cathal O’Leary; James Maher, Liam Hickey, Shane Donnelly.
Subs: Cian Dawson for Darragh Maher (37 mins); John Fitzpatrick for Killeen (44 mins); Padraig Donnelly for James Maher (46 mins); Alan Rafter for Cathal O’Leary (56 mins).
Castletown Liam Mellows: Gavin Stamp; Dylan Goland, Danny Gardiner, Frank Roche; Robbie Brooks, Colin Kennedy, Richard Farrell; Rory Heffernan, Ross Cody; Jack Higgins, Joe Gardiner, Aaron Condren; Conor Carty, Eoin Cullen, Doran Daly O’Toole.
Subs: Sean Og Stafford for Gardiner (36 mins); Andy Merrigan for Condren (58 mins);
Risteard Kinsella for Higgins (63 mins).
Referee: Brian Kearney (Kildare)
