Strong Second Half Helps Senior Hurlers Beat Carlow To Progress To All-Ireland Quarter Final

DUBLIN 2-25 

CARLOW 0-21 

Dublin produced an improved display in the second-half to eventually pull away from a spirited Carlow by ten points in their All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship preliminary quarter-final at Netwatch Cullen Park on Saturday afternoon.

The Dubs trailed by a point at the interval but goals at either end of the second-half from Mark Grogan and Cian O’Sullivan proved too much for a Carlow side heavily reliant on Marty Kavanagh for scores.

The victory ensured a quarter-final clash with Munster finalists Clare next weekend, and the Dubs can take confidence from the manner in which they came to grips with this tricky assignment after the break.

There was little to separate the teams during a nervy, patchy first-half that saw Dublin open the scoring through Chris O’Leary in the opening minute.

The hosts struck back through a Marty Kavanagh free and a Chris Nolan point before Donal Burke regained Dublin’s narrow advantage when converting two frees by the 7^th minute.

Carlow struck three points in quick succession through two Kavanagh frees and a John Michael Nolan score to regain the early initiative.

The visitors enjoyed a mini purple-patch of their own thanks to a brace of fine scores from Danny Sutcliffe and two further frees by Burke but it proved a brief respite as Kavanagh kept the home scoreboard ticking over to leave Carlow 0-9 to 0-7 clear by the 28^th minute.

O’Leary and Burke brought Dublin back to parity and two points on the bounce from Darragh Power and Mark Grogan looked to have handed Dublin a marginal edge approaching the interval.

However, the hosts finished the half on a high with two late points by the influential Kavanagh ensuring Carlow entered the break leading by the bare minimum (0-13 to 0-12). 

A point from downtown by Conor Burke saw Dublin get back on level terms in the 37^th minute and they controlled the third quarter with further points arriving through Donal Burke and Grogan.

The goal Dublin craved so desperately arrived in the 42^nd minute as Grogan timed his run to perfection to fire home and leave daylight between the teams for the first time.

The hosts continued to battle via points by Kavanagh, Chris Nolan and Jack McCullagh, halving their deficit to two points by the 62^nd minute.

However, the energy left their challenge in those closing minutes, with substitute Fergal Whitely adding two fine scores when introduced while Sutcliffe, O’Sullivan and Conor Burke also added to their personal tallies late on.

O’Sullivan added some gloss to the final scoreline with a precise finish deep into injury time, leaving a satisfactory footnote to a positive afternoon for the county’s hurlers.

Scorers – DUBLIN: D Burke 0-8 (8f), C O’Sullivan 1-3 (0-1f), M Grogan 1-2, C O’Leary, D Sutcliffe 0-3 each, C Burke, F Whitely 0-2 each, D Power, P Crummey 0-1 each. CARLOW: M Kavanagh 0-12 (11f), C Nolan 0-3, J Doyle 0-2, J McCullagh, K McDonald, R Coady, JM Nolan 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: S Brennan; J Bellew, E O’Donnell, P Smyth; P Doyle, C Burke, D Gray; M Grogan, C O’Leary; D Sutcliffe, D Burke, C Boland; S Currie, C O’Sullivan, D Power. Subs: C Donohoe for Bellew (half-time), P Crummey for Boland (49), F Whitely for Currie (56), D Purcell for O‘Leary (66), A Considine for D Burke (68).

CARLOW: B Tracey; P Doyle, C Lawlor, R Coady; F Fitzpatrick, D Byrne, J McCullagh; J Kavanagh, K McDonald; J Nolan, C Nolan, J Doyle; J M Nolan, M Kavanagh, P Boland. Subs: J Tracey for JM Nolan (50), F O’Toole for J Nolan (68), J Doyle for Coady (73).

Referee: James Owens (Wexford).