NHL Division 1A: Limerick 1-26 Kilkenny 2-16
A real tussle of a contest ran its course in the final quarter, as Limerick powered home to win their first points of the league. They needed a bounce after the anaemic inability to defeat Waterford the previous week.
Kilkenny came with a fairly experimental team and whereas frustrated that the match got away from them in the end, were pleased with the effort shown and the highly competitive first 50 minutes.
This was a match of some jeopardy. It wouldn’t have augured well for Limerick to lose both of their opening fixtures at the start of a year when they are expected to relaunch their challenge as the dominant force in hurling, which has flagged in the past two years.
For Kilkenny, Waterford’s defeat of Limerick means that the match between the two in a fortnight could well decide a relegation spot.
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In the end, the accurate free-taking of Aidan O’Connor and a buoyant five from play by Peter Casey, complemented by a goal from Aaron Gillane, saw Limerick home.
Manager John Kiely noted the improvement from a week previously.
“It was poor, lacked an awful lot of what we would expect of ourselves, and we worked hard Tuesday and Friday for a reaction from the guys ... they worked really, really hard ...
“I have to be very happy with a lot of what was out there. The intensity was reasonably good. There were occasions when it dropped off, but overall, it was good but I think we got our passing game going. We supported each other much better and our shooting efficiency was quite good.”
Limerick’s problems in Walsh Park had been most damningly evident in a failure to get in front when they had the wind advantage after half-time. They didn’t take that chance here when storming into a 0-5 to nil lead after the first 12 minutes.
Diarmaid Byrnes, Gillane and Aidan O’Connor hit the target, the latter three times on his way to a significant total of 0-10, three from play.
It looked like a long afternoon for the visitors but out of the blue they found themselves level. Once John Donnelly had registered their first score in the 13th minute, they rattled off a further 1-1 to tie the scores. The goal was shot by All Star Martin Keoghan, whose narrow-angle shot somehow carried past two defenders on the goal-line.
This sequence energised Kilkenny, who had looked uncertain, even apprehensive, in those early exchanges and they challenged hard, asserting their hard-wired ability to quarry ball out of rucks and defending more confidently. Darragh Corcoran hurled well at centre back and the easy run of scores for the home side dried up.
From then on, the match seesawed and although Limerick generally did the leading, Cian Kenny’s free in the 25th minute put Kilkenny 1-7 to 0-9 in front. The winners finished the half strongly to lead by two, 0-14 to 1-9.
Kiely was happy with O’Connor, who he left on frees even on Gillane’s return. O’Connor put one wide in compiling his impressive total. Gillane was still finding his way back and had an early goal chance blocked by goalkeeper Aidan Tallis and Mikey Carey.
He put that right in the 57th minute when scoring the decisive goal, finishing a good move by Cian Lynch, who was busy without touching the spectacular, and Adam English. Carey was in attendance but with Cathal O’Neill free, found himself in two minds. And whereas there might have been questions to answer had Gillane not scored, he finished well for a 1-21 to 1-15 lead.
It was a workmanlike display from the former All-Ireland champions. Their big names were still acclimatising: Gearóid Hegarty fumbled a ball in the middle of the field and Gillane got mugged by defenders, but other stalwarts got game time. O’Neill came off the bench – good news for UL before this week’s Fitzgibbon final – the Morrissey brothers and Darragh O’Donovan entered the fray.
Eoin Cody, who put some inaccuracies behind him to finish with 1-6, including a really well-taken goal, was a constant source of bother for the home defence.
There was late drama when Carey was sinbinned for fouling Byrnes on a rampaging run but the latter shot straight at Tallis.
Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng was positive while regretting defeat in a match they had come to win.
“I’m really pleased with how we responded there. Obviously we made a few mistakes and that’s going to happen. Disappointed to lose the game though.
“We came down to win it. I know people might think that we’re down a lot of players at the minute, but a lot of those younger players that are coming through are only going to get better. We’ll take the positives from it while we’re disappointed.
“We have to get ready now for the next two weeks and get ready for Waterford.”
LIMERICK: N Quaid; S Finn, M Casey, B Nash; D Byrnes (0-3, 2f), W O’Donoghue, M Fitzgerald (0-1); A English (0-1), C Lynch (capt); G Hegarty (0-1), D Reidy (0-1), A O’Connor (0-10, 7f); H Flanagan, A Gillane (1-2), P Casey (0-5).
Subs: C O’Neill (0-1) for Flanagan (h-t); D Morrissey for Finn (40 mins); D O’Donovan for Reidy (52); T Morrissey (0-1) for Hegarty (59); P O’Donovan for Gillane (70 mins).
KILKENNY: A Tallis; M Butler, M Carey, R Garrett; K Doyle, D Corcoran (capt) (0-1), P Deegan (0-1); C Kenny (0-2, 2f), J Molloy; T Clifford (0-2), L Connellan, E Cody (1-6, 1f); L Moore (0-2), J Donnelly (0-1), M Keoghan (1-0).
Subs: L Hogan (0-1) for Connellan (47 mins); S Donnelly for J Donnelly (48); S Murphy for Doyle (54); C Beirne for Clifford (57); F Mackessy for Molloy (64).
Referee: S Hynes (Galway).
