Ballyboden St Enda’s lost out to Kevin’s in the Junior A hurling final Photo by John Kirwan
Boden lose out in junior A final
BALLYBODEN St Enda’s narrowly lost out to Kevin’s in the Junior A Hurling Final at the weekend with the contest taking place in O’Toole Park, reports Michael Howley.
After initially taking the lead in the first 15 minutes, Boden would find themselves on the backfoot of the contest by two points down as the two teams headed into half time.
Despite this however they were still well in with a shout and neither team had managed to settle down or achieve any kind of rhythm or flow in the game.
Kevins would ever so slowly increase their lead throughout the second half and would end up emerging victorious in a very tight game by a four point margin with the final score reading 0-19 to 0-15 in their favour.
Boden’s forward line were unable to find their shooting boots on the day with a number of frees missed throughout the match.
They also found themselves unable to get the ball past the Kevin’s number 1 Brian Og Flannery who made several key saves at the end of the match to keep his side with their noses in front.
While Boden certainly didn’t play to their potential, Kevins did an excellent job themselves of managing the game effectively shutting down the Boden attack, particularly former dual intercounty star Conal Keaney who was unable to have the impact Boden would have hoped for throughout the match thanks to the likes of Oisin FitzPatrick and Joe McNamara.
Kevin’s manager Brendan Doyle spoke of his side’s victory after the game.
“Neither team got into a flow and it was scrappy. The ref let a lot go.
‘It was all about winning the breaking ball and I thought our lads put in a phenomenal effort in that regard.
‘We were happy with where we were at half time being two points up.
‘The message was just stick to what we’re doing and keep our shape.
‘We dug it out and got three or four ahead. We’ve to thank Brian Flannery for making three or four saves at the end.
‘Conal Keaney was also going to grab a certain amount of ball and we needed to get right on top of him when he came down. I think we did a good job on that as well and that was key for winning the game.”
