Minor hurlers halted by Limerick

LIMERICK 1-18 DUBLIN 0-15

Dublin minor hurlers' dreams of reaching an All-Ireland MHC final were extinguished by Limerick in Sunday's semi-final at Croke Park.

The Dubs battled all the way but were left with a steep uphill challenge as the Shannonsiders led 1-13 to 0-7 at the interval with sweeper Ciaran O'Connor having a telling half for Limerick.

Johnny McGuirk's lads restarted the second half very well - scoring four points inside the opening five minutes to cut the deficit to 1-14 to 0-11 but the goal Dublin required to really get them going never materialised.

The opening half belonged for the most part to Limerick with their goal coming in the 13th minute.

It was not without debate as Cian Magnier-Flynn looked to be standing in the small square before the sliotar arrived from a long-range free before he brilliantly doubled on it in flight to send it to Daire de Poire's net.

The free-taking of Brian Ryan kept Dublin at arm's length while Limerick had more ball-winners in attack from which to launch attacks.

Towards the close of the opening half there were signs that the young Dubs were beginning to find their feet with Ciaran Dowling on target twice as well as Colin Currie converting a '65'.

On the restart the introduction of John Walsh brought a bit more energy to Dublin's inside forward line and a Colin Currie free opening the scoring inside a minute.

Conor Burke added a second point, from a good Colin Currie fetch and Currie then tagged on a free following a foul on John Walsh.

The early signs on the restart were good and this team had shown great mettle in difficult situations earlier this summer.

However, Brian Ryan broke Dublin's momentum with a free and Limerick had the ability to react anytime Dublin looked like building momentum and with the cushion of their first-half lead never looked likely to cough up the game.

Dublin finished the game with 14 men after sub Jack O'Neill was second yellow carded after one of the umpires as the Davin End brought ref Just Heffernan's attention.

SCORERS– Limerick: B Ryan 0-10 (0-8f), C Magnier-Flynn 1-1, A Barrett, C Boylan 0-2 each, F Hourigan, K Hayes 0-1 each. Dublin: C Currie 0-8 (0-6f, 0-2 ‘65’), J McGuirk (0-1f), C Dowling 0-2 each, E Foley, C Burke, D Gray 0-1 each.

LIMERICK: M O’Kelly; B Nash, C Nicholas, R Connelly; J Adams, J Boylan, F Hourigan; C O’Connor, D Carroll; M O’Grady, A Barrett, C Boylan; B Ryan, K Hayes, C Magnier-Flynn. Subs: J Flynn for Carroll (46), D Woulfe for Barrett (49), P O’Riordan for Magnier-Flynn (58).

DUBLIN: D De Poire; D Hawkshaw, P Smyth, D Ryan; J McVeigh, C O’Sullivan, E Foley; C Ryan, D Keogh; D Burke, J McGuirk, C Burke; R Hayes, C Dowling, C Currie. Subs: D Gray for Keogh (ht), J Walsh for Hayes (ht), J O’Neill for McVeigh (48), P Feeney for C Currie (49), S Currie for McGuirk (54).

REF: J Heffernan (Wexford).