Allianz National Hurling League Division Two Fixtures/Results

DIVISION 2A

OFFALY 0-22 KERRY 1-18

KILDARE 2-23 DERRY 0-19

CARLOW 5-24 DOWN 0-19

Kildare leapfrogged Offaly and returned to the top of the Division 2A table this afternoon courtesy of a comfortable ten point win over Derry at Owenbeg, though the home side will take a lot of encouragement from a good performance in advance of what are likely to be crucial relegation battles against Carlow and Down in the coming weeks.

Kildare did start strongly, with Brian Byrne taking a pass from James Burke to waltz through the Derry defence and hammer the ball to the net. Gerry Keegan was very threatening too, knocking over five points from play over the course of the contest. However Derry steadied after this, performing much better defensively, while Cormac O’Doherty began to knock over frees.

The score was 1-16 to 0-12 in favour of the Lily Whites early in the second half, but a monster score from Eamon Conway inspired a mini-comeback from the Derry men. They stayed competitive, missing a number of chances that would have really energised their surge, before Kildare struck late through Killian Aherne to stretch the margin of victory.   

It was one way traffic at Netwatch Cullen Park, where Paddy Boland struck an incredible four goals for Carlow, with James Doyle adding the fifth, en route to a handy win for the home side against Down. 

In the Saturday contest, a wonderful sideline cut from David Nally with the very last puck of the game ensured that Offaly’s first visit to Fitzgerald Stadium for a National Hurling League game since 1953 was successful, as they moved to the top of the Division 2A table, albeit just for 24 hours.

The Faithful County played with the aid of the breeze in the first half and they struggled to make it count, falling two points behind when Shane Conway found the net for the Kingdom after 17 minutes.

Offaly’s response to this was excellent however, as they rallied to lead by 0-13 to 1-5 at half-time Cillian Kiely scored two from play, Eoghan Cahill pointed four frees and Oisin Kelly added another to give them some leeway going into the second half.

Kerry, as expected, picked up the pace after the interval with Fionnán Mackessy leading the charge, while Pádraig Boyle brought his tally to eight points with a string of excellent dead ball scores.

Jordan Conway initially, and then Conway with a sideline from nearly 60 metres, twice put Kerry in front, but points number 12 and 13 for Eoghan Cahill levelled on each occasion, before Nally came up with the dramatic winner.

DIVISION 2B

TYRONE 2-15 SLIGO 0-11

WICKLOW 0-23 LONDON 0-14

Tyrone and Wicklow are each on four points in Division 2B, after they condemned winless Sligo and London to defeats this afternoon. Lorcan Devlin and Bryan McGurk found the net in each half at Markievicz Park, though it took the Red Hand men a long time to get going.

29 minutes had expired before Mickey Little added their first point to Devlin’s goal, and at 0-7 to 1-2 at half-time, they needed to catch fire with the aid of the breeze to see off their opponents.

They did that however, with Dermot Begley striking his frees well, which Chris Kearns and Conor Grogan also chipped in with nice points from play.  

The wind was also a factor at Aughrim, as London led by five points at one stage, but the Pádraig-Doran led Wicklow defence were watertight after half-time, restricting the Exiles to just three points in that period, as Eoin McCormack, Christy Moorehouse and Pádraig Doyle all scored well.

Pádraig Collins also saved a penalty for London, as well as chipping in with some other solid saves to try and keep his team in touch.