Round-up: Allianz Hurling League Division 2 action
Aaron Dunphy scored 12 points for Laois in their Allianz Hurling League Division 2 victory over Derry. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile
ALLIANZ NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE DIVISION TWO
LAOIS 0-25 DERRY 0-15
LONDON 0-19 MAYO 1-16
KERRY 2-11 WESTMEATH 0-17
Derry were much more competitive than they had been in round one of the Allianz Hurling league while Laois were far less dominant than a week ago in East Mayo, but the midlanders still sit on top of Division Two after they recorded a ten-point win over the Oak Leaf County today.
Jack Kelly returned to the Laois senior panel after a four-year absence and he picked up where he left off with a superb performance, firing five points from play from centre forward.
Derry looked to pack the defence and force Laois to shoot from distance, but a straight red card for Thomas Brady was a hammer blow to their chances of holding firm in a low scoring contest and a half-time lead of 0-13 to 0-7 was never likely to be reeled in.
Aaron Dunphy (0-12), Martin Phelan (0-3) and midfielder David Dooley with two points also had strong showings for the O’Moore County, who now have their bye week and don’t return to action until another home game against Kerry on Saturday, February 21st.
On paper, Kerry will be the happier side of the two with a share of the spoils from their clash with Westmeath in Tralee today, but even after losing Ronan Walsh to a red card in the first half, John Griffin’s side held the lead for most of the contest and looked like they might have done enough before Eamon Cunneen struck an equaliser for the Lake County.
Missed chances was a huge issue for Kerry in the opening 35 minutes. They led by 2-5 to 0-7 thanks to goals from Tom Doyle and Walsh, but squandered 14 chances too.
Westmeath had misses as well, albeit not quite as many, but they also struggled to play their best hurling for long stretches, briefly falling six points behind with a little over 20 minutes to play.
When they did step up the pace, they looked very effective. Dead balls accounted for ten of their scores - four from Killian Doyle, five from David Williams and a sublime sideline cut from Cunneen – but Doyle’s two outstanding scores from play were vital in Westmeath getting close enough to benefit from Cunneen’s point in the 75th minute.
It was level scores at the final whistle in McGovern Park in Ruislip too, where Mayo hit the last three points of the game to get their first point of this year’s league.
Still without their substantial Tooreen contingent, Mayo had the better of the early exchanges in North London, with Ryan Duffy scoring six of their first seven points.
Scores from Dylan Dawson, David Devine and Paul Kennedy cut the gap to the minimum at half-time (0-8 to 0-7) and for the majority of the second half, the Exiles had the better of things.
Cormac Phillips finished off a goal that stemmed the tide but Ronan McGrady at centre back and Ronan Lodge in midfield each took control of their respective sectors, setting up the chances that Devine, Kennedy, Jack Morrissey and Donnacha Leahy converted.
Leahy’s point after 67 minutes made it 0-19 to 1-13 but Phillips, Ryan Duffy and Corey Scahill came up trumps with scores, Scahill levelling the contest in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
