U20 hurlers overcome Offaly in Leinster quarters

LEINSTER U20HC QUARTER-FINAL

DUBLIN 2-16 OFFALY 0-16

Two goals inside the last ten minutes secured victory for Dublin in Saturday’s Bord Gáis Energy Leinster U20HC quarter-final at St Brendan’s Park, Birr.

A Brian Duignan point had brought Offaly level with eight minutes to go for the first time since the start, after Dublin had led by five points inside the opening 14 minutes, but crucially a Darach McBride goal a minute later was the first of two vital scores for Paul O’Brien’s men.

McBride was in the right spot when the sliotar emerged from a ruck and he made no mistake when rifling to the Offaly net.

Then in the 57th minute sub Kevin Desmond finished off a superb breakaway move by the Dubs to seal victory, though there was four minutes added time to be played.

Liam Murphy followed up on Dublin’s second goal with a free as Dublin moved 2-15 to 0-15 clear and they advance to face Wexford in the provincial semi-final next Friday night in Carlow (8.0, link to game on TG4 Spórt Youtube) with Kilkenny facing Galway, victors over Laois, in the other semi-final in Portlaoise.

Offaly finished the game with 14 men after their freetaker and scorer of 0-10 (0-7f, 0-2 '65') Cathal Kiely was dismissed in second half injury-time (second yellow card).

Dublin led 0-9 to 0-7 at half-time after a well contested opening 30 minutes with the Dublin defence led by centre-back Kevin Burke doing well at the heart of the Dubs rearguard.

By the 40th minute Dublin were 0-12 to 0-9 ahead following two fine scores from Micheál Murphy but the freetaking of Cathal Kiely kept Offaly in contact at all stages.

In the first half the Dubs began the more impressive with early points from Billy Ryan and a fine Tommy Kinnane score, after good build-up play by the corner-back with Iain O hEithir.

A great long range point from Tommy Kinnane, again, in the seventh minute had Dublin three points to the good as the hosts spurned some early point efforts.

By the water break Dublin were 0-6 to 0-1 clear after goalkeeper Eddie Gibbons converted the first of his frees, Darach McBride had converted a sideline and Liam Murphy put over a close range free.

However, Offaly raised their game after the water break with points from Kevin McDermott, Cathal Kiely (free) and corner-back Rory Carty from 70 metres but the wide count was Offaly seven, Dublin one at this stage and it was to have a bearing on the final outcome.

Two Liam Murphy frees broke Offaly’s chain of scores to make it 0-8 to 0-4 after 25 minutes.

Before the break Cathal Kiely had converted two frees and a ‘65’ for the Faithful County with Eddie Gibbons hitting another long-range free for Dublin.

SCORERS - Dublin: L Murphy 0-5 (5f), D McBride 1-1 (0-1 sideline), E Gibbons 0-3 (0-3f), K Desmond 1-0, M Murphy, T Kinnane 0-2 each, B Ryan, D Power, P Linehan 0-1 each. Offaly: C Kiely 0-10 (0-7f, 0-2 65), K Sampson, K McDermott, R Carty, C Donoghue, C O’Meara, B Duignan 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: Eddie Gibbons; Tommy Kinnane, Andrew Dunphy, Brian Sheehy; Iain Ó hEithir, Kevin Burke, Enda O’Donnell; Darragh Power, Mark Sweeney; Darach McBride, Michéal Murphy; Luke McDwyer; Dara Purcell, Billy Ryan, Liam Murphy. Subs: Kevin Desmond for Purcell (36), Pádhraic Linehan for Ryan (47), Donal Leavy for Power (54), Michael Conroy for O’Donnell (58), Liam Dunne for McDwyer (59).

OFFALY: Eamonn Cleary; Rory Carty, Conor Butler, Dara Maher; Ross Ravenhill, Pádraig Cantwell, Jack Screeney; Luke Nolan, Kevin McDermott; Killian Sampson, Cathal Donoghue, Brian Duignan; Cathal O’Meara, Cathal Kiely, Cathal Flynn. Subs: Lochlainn Kavanagh for Donoghue (47), Niall Lyons for Flynn (55), Morgan Watkins for O’Meara (55), Cathal Brady for Duignan (58).

REF: Patrick Murphy (Carlow).