Bord Gáis Leinster U-21 Hurling Championship

Offaly 5-22 Kildare 1-12

Kevin Egan Reports

Offaly made sure they didn’t fall victim on a night of momentous shocks in the Leinster under-21 hurling championship as a five goal haul from Emmet Nolan and Oisín Kelly ensured that they easily overcame the challenge of Kildare at St Conleth’s Park in Newbridge tonight.

Full forward Kelly wasted no time in getting his team out to a flier as he crashed two goals past Jeff Keane in the opening ten minutes, while Nolan and Dylan Murray tacked on points to open up a nine point gap. Kildare’s response was superb however and they outscored Offaly by 1-5 to 0-1 between the 14th and the 27th minute of the tie, inspired by some magnificent point scoring from corner forward Brian Byrne.

Byrne’s Naas colleague Conor Dowling found the net for Kildare just thirty seconds after moving from full back to full forward and while Emmet Nolan replied with low finish for Offaly’s third goal, Kildare weren’t out of contention at half time, trailing by 3-7 to 1-7.

The two sides shared the first four points of the second half equally an there was no sign of Offaly pulling clear at that stage, even after senior star Cillian Kiely was sprung from the bench by manager Ciaran McDonald. That all changed when midfielder Jack Sheridan was sent off for a second bookable offence with twenty minutes remaining and Offaly piled on the scores from there, the majority of them tapped over with little or no pressure in the face of a tiring Kildare back line.

Kelly and Nolan added further goals while further out the field Padraic Guinan, Ronan Hughes and Kiely all fired over a series of long range points to ease the Faithful County over the line and set up a semi-final clash with Carlow, due to be played on the 22nd of June.

OFFALY SCORERS: E Nolan 2-7, (0-4f, 0-1 ’65), O Kelly 3-1, D Murray (2f), P Guinan & R Hughes 0-3 each, C Kiely 0-2, D Wyer, A Cleary & C Freeman 0-1 each.

**KILDARE SCORERS: **C Dowling 1-2, B Byrne 0-5, R Casey 0-2 (0-1f), E O’Hehir (f), C Egan & E Dempsey 0-1 each.

**OFFALY: **E Cahill; C Taylor, D O’Toole, P Delaney; D Doughan, B Conneely, J Hardiman; D Wyer, P Guinan; J O’Toole, D Murray, R Hughes; A Cleary, O Kelly, E Nolan.

Subs: C Kiely for Guinan (30 – blood), Kiely for J O’Toole (37), C Freeman for Murray (43), E Parlon for Hardiman (47), L Langton for Wyer (50), C Cleary for Kelly (54)
Referee: Kevin Brady (Louth)

KILDARE: J Keane; C Crogan, C Dowling, K Maher; L Quinn, D Brereton, C Gordon; J Sheridan, J Reeves; T Brady, R Casey, E O’Hehir; C Egan, E Dempsey, B Byrne. 

Subs: T Forde for Crogan (HT), F Bass for Reeves (39), M Stapleton for O’Hehir (49), C Byrne for Gordon (55)

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CARLOW 1-17 LAOIS 1-15

Just one week after Carlow lost their final game of the Leinster round robin series and crashed down into the Christy Ring Cup, hurling in the county was given a huge boost when a late goal from James Doyle gave them a two point win over Laois at Netwatch Cullen Park sent them through to a Leinster under-21 semi-final against Offaly.

Three years ago Carlow lost to both Offaly and Kildare in the Leinster minor championship while Laois beat the Faithful County and Wexford en route to a Leinster decider, however that form was very much thrown out the window in a tense, nip and tuck encounter in Carlow town tonight.

Laois played with the aid of a strong breeze in the first half and they took a while to settle in, conceding the first two points. Mark Kavanagh quickly found his range however, firing over five points in succession. Carlow kept in touch however with points from Liam Galway, Seán Brennanb and James Doyle, and they were very well poised at half time, just 0-12 to 0-10 in arrears.

Carlow drew level with twelve minutes remaining and were handed a further boost when Ryan Mullaney was dismissed for Laois on a second bookable offence, but the O’Moore men still had a trump card in the shape of Kavanagh and he dealt a crushing blow to Carlow when he slammed home an excellent solo goal in the 52nd minute. Jack Barron produced a magnificent save to deny Laois a second goal however and that proved crucial when James Doyle hit twine with three minutes to play.

Laois had two glorious chances to equalise but spurned both and were left forlornly chasing a goal when Doyle added the last point of the game, a score than effectively secured Carlow’s progression to the last four of the provincial championship. 

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