Dublin hurling revival continues

National Hurling League: The great Dublin hurling revival continued apace yesterday in Limerick's Gaelic Grounds where the visitors maintained their unbeaten record in this season's Allianz National Hurling League.

Having secured three points from the home matches with Kilkenny and Galway, Dublin went in search of a first away win and had to take the field minus three significant players.

John McCaffrey's absence from centrefield had been known before selection but manager Tommy Naughton had to replace free-taker David Curtin, who had sustained two broken fingers on Thursday, and the scorer of the winning goal against Galway, Liam Ryan, who cried off with a hamstring strain.

Curtin's replacement Kevin O'Reilly, a hugely impressive Fitzgibbon Cup campaign behind him, shot seven points, five frees and two lineballs, as Dublin recorded a high-scoring, 0-22 to 1-15, victory.

"We did play very well," said Naughton afterwards.

"Twenty-two is good scoring and if you got that every day you'd be very happy. You have to play like that every day if you're in Division One and thanks be to God we did today. But we have to play the same against Antrim. We're showing good consistency and that's the very pleasing thing - that we're starting to play like a Division One team."

That match, a postponed series two fixture, in Belfast will be played on Wednesday night. Should Dublin win they will qualify for the league play-offs for the first time in 10 years.

Meanwhile, the big football match of the day was in Letterkenny, where O'Donnell Park was hosting its first league fixture since November 1977.

It ended well for the home side with Donegal maintaining their 100 per cent record and moving within touching distance of a semi-final place after a five-point win, 1-15 to 0-13, against holders Kerry.

A goal from Kevin Cassidy just before half-time turned the match in Donegal's favour after Kerry had started well. "We had launched a couple into (Colm) McFadden. He laid it off and I hit it as hard as I could," said the scorer of his explosively dispatched shot.

"Donegal were hungry," said Kerry manager Pat O'Shea. "They have good individual players and combined well. They were aggressive and strong. We ran out of steam and they finished well. In the first 30 minutes we conceded four points and then a goal and a point before half-time. So we conceded 1-11 in the last 40 minutes."

Another problem for Kerry was the departure of Kieran Donaghy after only 20 minutes with a shoulder injury likely to keep him out of action until the end of the league. "It's the AC joint we think," said O'Shea. "Losing him was obviously a blow but we've no complaints about the result. The better team won. It would have been nice to see him inside for the full game because he had started quite brightly."

Kerry's flight from Farranfore had been delayed for about an hour and a half by fog yesterday morning but O'Shea wasn't pleading extenuating circumstance.

"No. Not at all," he said when asked had it affected the team. "In fact we started very brightly."