Heart break as Down Hurlers loose by a single point

Tuesday 1st March 2022

NHL2A   Rd3

Report Dermott Donnelly -  Photo Louis McNally

Down 0-22

Kildare 2-17

Nothing is more bitter than losing by a single point, when time just ran out. Behind by fifteen points at half time, Down looked out of it and many other sides would have looked towards damage limitations… not Ronan Sheehan’s side. Having been suckered with two soft goals inside the opening 20 minutes it looked as though Down were about to bow down to David Herrity’s Lilly whites again. Kildare playing with a gale force wind in the first half took made the most of their advantage and were 2-9 to 0-3 up after twenty minutes. Jack Sheridan, swept in the first goal past a fully stretched Stephen Keith inside five minutes and when called back to take a rather innocuous harmless free out of defense outside of his twenty-metre line, no one could have suspected that it would sail past the Down defense and bounce into the top right corner of Keiths net. Sheridan & Gerry Keegan seemed to be able to score at will as Down struggled with the wind in their faces and Kildare’s success at long range shooting, as they notched up 2-13 in the first half. Down didn’t panic and although they only managed six points through Paul Sheehan with three, Caolan Taggart, Pearse Óg McCrickard & a long range Conor Woods free they were still able to cause enough panic in the Kildare rearguard as Daithí Sands, McCrickard, Ryan McCusker & Eoghan Sands still posed a potentially game winning threat up front. In defense Caolan Taggart once again proved to be a class act, winning his battle with Johnny Byrne and even finishing with two points as he drove forward in support of Matt Conlan linking defense to attack.

The second half saw Down stage a massive comeback, within the first 15 minutes they had closed the gap to eight points, Pearse Óg McCrickard, Paul Sheehan & Conor Woods with scores. Kildare were now struggling to get the sliotar into Down scoring zone and could only manage their first score of the second half in the twenty sixth minute as they too struggled with the wind. Kildare’s use of the clock in slowing down the game worked in their favour in the final quarter as Down desperately pushed for an equalizer. Down had continue to chip away at Kildare’s lead and with injury time approaching had managed to close the gap to just two points with Conor Woods pointing a couple of long range frees and two Marc Fisher long range efforts. But it just seemed they had left themselves too much to do and despite Sheehan’s men valiant comeback, Kildare held on for a one-point win. Down remain joint top of the league, tied with Westmeath & Kerry on four points each and next weekend they travel to Mullingar to face Westmeath

Down: S Keith, M Hughes, J McManus, T Murray (0-1), C Taggart (0-2), C Woods (0-5), L Savage, D Hughes, M Conlan (0-1), E Sands, P Sheehan (0-10), R McCusker, D Sands, O MacManus, P Óg McCrickard (0-2)

C Egan (0-1) for MacManus, J Doran for McCusker, M Fisher (0-2) for E Sands, R Costello (0-1) for Sheehan, G Hughes for Taggart

Kildare: P McKenna, S Christianseen, S Leacy, C Derivan, P Dolan (0-5), R Kelly, K Whelan, C McCabe (0-1), R Boran, B Byren, C Dowling, J Byrne, S Ryan, J Sheridan (2-6), G Keegan (0-8)

S Ryan for Aherne, A Shanagher for Dolan, F Bass for Dowling