Our Minors travelled to Raheens on Monday last for a showdown to decide who would finish 3rd and 4th in the division. With both teams already through to the semi finals it was very much bragging rights at stake.
The game started (and stayed ) at a blistering pace with Luke Mc Kenna firing over within seconds of the thrown in. Points were added in quick succession by the buzzing Luke Gill, Nathan Broughall and Johnny Grace before Grace finished a trademark goal with aplomb.
The visitors continued to attack when perhaps a slow down might have served us better as Raheens began to find gaps in our all out attack approach and began picking off points of their own
An injury to Johnny Grace saw him carried off with a suspected hamstring tear just before half time and Raheens used this period of us adjusting to score two goals leaving them ahead 2-6- 1-6 at the break.
All plans and tactics went out the window for the second half as both went at each other hammer and thongs . The frenetic pace continued as Raheens pressed their lead and tacked on a couple of points to stretch the lead to 5.
Back came the Abbey rangers men with fine points from Sean Behan, Paddy Neary and Gill again before Gill finished an excellent move with a fine goal. We were now ahead by a point but a superbly athletic Raheens team came again with 1-1 to retake the lead.
A penalty awarded to, and coolly dispatch by Mikey Murphy drew us level before the home side hit back with another goal .
Both teams traded a couple of points to leave the final score 4-11 to 3-11.
A fine game for the big crowd who attended however a lot of lessons to be learned about controlling the ball at certain periods.
Both teams now look forward to their semi finals in the next 10 days knowing there’s every chance they will meet again in this competition.
The game started (and stayed ) at a blistering pace with Luke Mc Kenna firing over within seconds of the thrown in. Points were added in quick succession by the buzzing Luke Gill, Nathan Broughall and Johnny Grace before Grace finished a trademark goal with aplomb.
The visitors continued to attack when perhaps a slow down might have served us better as Raheens began to find gaps in our all out attack approach and began picking off points of their own
An injury to Johnny Grace saw him carried off with a suspected hamstring tear just before half time and Raheens used this period of us adjusting to score two goals leaving them ahead 2-6- 1-6 at the break.
All plans and tactics went out the window for the second half as both went at each other hammer and thongs . The frenetic pace continued as Raheens pressed their lead and tacked on a couple of points to stretch the lead to 5.
Back came the Abbey rangers men with fine points from Sean Behan, Paddy Neary and Gill again before Gill finished an excellent move with a fine goal. We were now ahead by a point but a superbly athletic Raheens team came again with 1-1 to retake the lead.
A penalty awarded to, and coolly dispatch by Mikey Murphy drew us level before the home side hit back with another goal .
Both teams traded a couple of points to leave the final score 4-11 to 3-11.
A fine game for the big crowd who attended however a lot of lessons to be learned about controlling the ball at certain periods.
Both teams now look forward to their semi finals in the next 10 days knowing there’s every chance they will meet again in this competition.
