The senior hurlers suffered their first defeat of the season when going down in a top of the table clash to Gortnamona at Páirc Mhic Ionnrachtaigh on Sunday.
It was a cagey opening from both sides with a Caoimhin Heaney point opening our account followed by a Don Whelan pointed free to give us an 0-2 to 0-1 lead after four minutes. We then created two great goal scoring opportunities which we failed to convert and were subsequently punished when Gortnamona struck the opening goal of the game. A further brace of points extended the Gorts lead to four but points from Colm McKee and Don Whelan kept us on their coat tails. Again, Gortnamona opened a four-point advantage but two well executed points from frees by Don Whelan once again left two between the sides. The killer blow came in the 25th minute when Gortnamona struck their second goal and when they tagged on three injury time points, they lead by eight. A Stephen McGivern point left us trailing 2-8 to 0-7 at the break.
Both teams exchanged point for point in the opening ten minutes of the second half with Jay Maguire and Don Whelan, pointing. We started to claw our way back into the game when Colm McKee pointed, and Don Whelan dispatched a penalty to the net to reduce the Gort lead to a goal. However, we were never able to get any closer as the final 15 minutes both teams cancelled each other out point for point with Don Whelan and Deaglan Mooney adding to our tally. At the final whistle Gortnamona took the spoils with a deserved win by four points 2-13 to 1-12.
Scorers: D Whelan 1-6, C McKee 0-2, C Heaney 0-1, D Mooney 0-1, S McGivern 0-1 and J Maguire 0-1
Click here for photos of the game.
