Senior hurlers to face Laois in Walsh Cup semi-final

Sun, 25th January 2015

DUBLIN 0-28 ANTRIM 2-12

Dublin have progressed to the semi-final of the Bord na Móna Walsh Cup following Sunday’s comfortable Group 2 victory over Antrim at Parnell Park.

Ger Cunningham’s men will face Laois, 4-18 to 1-19 victors over Wexford, in their semi-final away next weekend (Sunday, 2.0, Portlaoise).

David Treacy was the Dubs top-scorer with 0-11 (0-7 frees) as Antrim finished the game with 13 men following Eoghan Campbell’s straight red card in the 42nd minute and Neil McManus being dismissed in injury-time after picking up his second yellow.

The Dubs led by 0-16 to 1-5 at the break, with Antrim’s goal coming late in the first half from Eddie McCloskey.

Dublin started with intent with points from Treacy, (two, one free) and three from Danny Sutcliffe seeing them into a 0-5 to 0-0 lead inside the opening eight minutes.

Sutcliffe and Mark Schutte both impressed in the Dublin attack with both hitting 0-5 from play over the course of the 70-plus minutes.

With 20 minutes left to play Antrim raised their hopes of an unlikely victory when a quickfire 1-1 from sub Ciarán Clarke cut the deficit to four points.

However, Dublin then raised their game again with Schutte and Treacy again to the fore in the scoring stakes to run out ten-point winners.

SCORERS - Dublin: D Treacy 0-11 (0-7f), M Schutte, D Sutcliffe 0-5 each, D O’Callaghan, C Boland 0-2 each, J Boland, S Stapleton, J Hetherton 0-1 each. Antrim: E McCloskey, C Clarke 1-1 each, N McManus 0-4 (0-3f), P Shiels 0-2 (0-2f), C Johnson, M Donnelly, C McCann, D McKernan 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: G Maguire; P Schutte, M Carton, S Durkin; P Kelly, C Murphy, E O’Donnell; Ross O’Carroll, J Boland; J Hetherton, S Stapleton, D Sutcliffe; D O’Callaghan, M Schutte, D Treacy. Subs: C Mac Giolla Bhríde for Durkin (inj, 38); C Boland for Hetherton (50); E Dillon for Stapleton (64).

ANTRIM: C O’Connell; R McCambridge, N McAuley, A Graffin; S McCrory, C McKinley, O McFadden; E Campbell, E McCloskey; N McManus, M Donnelly, C Johnson; C McCann, P Shiels, PJ O’Connell. Subs: J McGreevy for McFadden (18); D McKernan for McCrory (ht); T McCann for Donnelly (47); B McFall for C McCann (64).

REF: J Heffernan (Wexford).