First-half goals help Dublin to 11-point win over Carlow

Donal Burke’s goal just before the interval proves key at Parnell Park

Dublin 3-20 Carlow 0-18

Three first-half goals proved telling as Dublin eased past Carlow by 11 points in their Walsh Cup round two clash at Parnell Park on Sunday afternoon.

Despite starting sluggishly, the hosts sparked into life by the 12th minute as Eamonn Dillon pounced for a brace of well-taken goals inside 40 seconds of each other.

Carlow responded well to those blows, dominating the middle stages of the half with Martin Kavanagh firing over six points to reduce their arrears to the bare minimum by the 32nd minute.

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However, the concession of a third goal to Donal Burke punctured their momentum as they faced an uphill task trailing by 3-8 to 0-12 by the interval.

Their struggles continued upon the resumption as both Mark Schutte and Lorcan McMullen fired over two scores apiece in the third quarter, a period in which their opponents were held scoreless as they were unable to make much of an impression up front.

DUBLIN; S Brennan; A Dunphy (0-1), L Corcoran, J Madden (0-1); P Crummey, D Gray, J Malone; F Whitely (0-1), L McMullen (0-2); D Keogh (0-1), D Burke (1-0), R Hayes; E Dillon (2-0), M Schutte (0-4), P Ryan (0-3, two frees).

Subs: C O'Callaghan for Gray (15 mins), O O'Rorke (0-5, four frees) for Ryan (22), Gray for Dunphy (27), C Boland (0-1) for Keogh (h/t), C Derwin for Dillon (48), Dunphy for O'Callaghan (49), A O'Neill (0-1) for D Burke (52), E O'Donnell for McMullen (53), K Burke for Crummey (61), C Ryan for Schutte (64), McMullen for Hayes (68).

CARLOW: D Jordan; A Corcoran, P Doyle, R Smithers; D Byrne (0-2, one s/l), D English (0-1, free), G Coady; R Coady, K McDonald; J Murphy, M Kavanagh (0-8, six frees, one 65), T Joyce (0-1); C Nolan (0-3, one free), P Coady (0-1), JM Nolan (0-1).

Subs: M Doyle for Smithers (h/t), S Whelan for Joyce (41 mins), E Byrne for R Coady (43), G Bennett for P Doyle (43), M Malone for G Coady (46), A Amond for P Coady (47), A Dunne for Murphy (59), C Tracey for Kavanagh (59), D Tobin (0-1) for D Byrne (63).

Referee: Gearóid McGrath (Wexford).