Goals vital as Oulart hold off battling Cuala

OULART-THE BALLAGH (Wexford) 2-13 CUALA 0-13

Wexford’s Oulart-The Ballagh are the 2015 AIB Leinster Club senior hurling champions after holding off a battling Cuala in Sunday’s provincial decider at Dr Cullen Park, Carlow.

For the Oulart men is was redemption for their club as they had lost in all their six previous appearances in the Leinster final - including four in-a-row (2010-2013).

Goals were crucial for the eventual winners with their second half goal a cruel body blow to the Dalkey men who trailed by 2-10 to 0-4 following Garreth Sinnott’s three-pointer in the 44^th minute, with Sinnott kicking to an empty net after keeper Seán Brennan fumbled a long-range free from Eoin Moore.

Three minutes earlier Moore was a shade lucky to escape with just a yellow card following a high challenge on Cian Waldron.

Cuala battled to the finish, twice closing the gap to five-points, with David Treacy in particular landing some superb scores, however, the goal they required to really put pressure on Oulart never came.

The Wexford champions led 1-7 to 0-2 at half-time having been aided by the strong wind.

They were buoyed by a goal in first half injury-time when Tomás Dunne goaled just before the break having been placed by an excellent David Redmond handpass.

Oulart had threatened a goal on several occasions in the opening half but Cuala managed to exert sufficient pressure on the shooter to keep their goal intact.

Tommy Storey enjoyed an enterprising first half for Oulart as the centre-forward capitalised on any slack marking to fire over three points from play.

Cuala’s only score from play in the half came in the second minute when Con O’Callaghan found the target off his left side.

Their other score came from the stick of freetaker David Treacy in the 14^th minute but the difficult conditions saw the Dalkey side squander a number of other scoring opportunities.

SCORERS – Oulart-The Ballagh: N Kirwan 0-5 (0-3f, 0-1 ‘65’), T Dunne 1-1, T Storey 0-3, G Sinnott 1-0, D Mythen 0-2, D Redmond, E Moore 0-1 each. Cuala: D Treacy 0-10 (0-7), Con O’Callaghan 0-2, S Treacy 0-1.

OULART-THE BALLAGH: C O'Leary; B Kehoe, K Rossiter, E Moore; P Roche, S Murphy, K Sheridan; D Redmond, M Jacob; R Jacob, T Dunne, T Storey; D Mythen, G Sinnott, N Kirwan. Subs: D Morton for M Jacob (51), P Murphy for Dunne (54), P Sutton for Sinnott (60).

CUALA: S Brennan; S Timlin, Cian O'Callaghan, J Sheanon; R Tierney, O Gough, S Moran; J Malone, D O'Connell; Con O'Callaghan, C Cronin, C Waldron; D Treacy, M Schutte, S Treacy. Subs: C Sheanon for Moran (22), N Kenny for C Sheanon (45).

REF: D Hughes (Carlow).