Doon’s goal-blitz proves too much for Patrickswell in thrilling Limerick senior hurling championship contest:
By John Redington Limerick Leader Sports
DOON made it two wins from two in Group 1 of this year’s Bon Secours Limerick senior hurling championship after recording a thrilling 4-14 to 0-20 victory over Patrickswell in a pulsating contest in Kilmallock on Friday evening.
Derek McGrath’s Doon side combined skill, pace, teamwork and power to ram home four top-drawer goals that consigned Patrickswell to a second successive defeat in this year’s championship.
In a non-stop game where established stars and those coming to the fore displayed the whole gamut of their skills, the East Limerick side, led by a superb Adam English who orchestratws the forwards around him, kept finding the immediate response every time the ‘Well hauled themselves back into contact before landing the late double-whammy that finally flattened their opponents.
The results leave Limerick’s most successful hurling club with it all to do in their three remaining group games to qualify for the play-offs and they will certainly feel hard done by the margin of their defeat.
Some of it was down to their finishing where the ‘Well ran up thirteen wides as against their opponents’ seven, but their biggest difficulty lay in countering the blistering speed of Doon’s attack whenever they got all their ducks in a row.
Kevin Maher didn’t waste any time putting Doon ahead, nor did Aaron Gillane with his free and strike from play to make the lead change hands before Doon found an early injection of gas to put some distance between the sides off Richie English’s drive from halfway, Gareth Thomas, Adam English’s pointed free and, after Jack Kelleher replied for the the ‘Well, Eddie Stokes and Donal Coughlan also found the target with points.
Yet despite winning most of the one-on-ones, the East Limerick men didn’t quite turn their dominant possession into the numbers on the scoreboard and, after Thomas replied to Diarmaid Byrnes’s pointed free on the quarter mark, mistakes in their play allowed Patrick Kirby, Cian Lynch and Kirby again draw the sides level with points.
By this stage, Lynch was turning on the magic in the middle, but Doon kept their heads and quick points from Maher and Chris Thomas had them back in front. Following Gillane pulling a point back from a free, they found their gold dust moment when Barry Murphy, English and Darragh Stapleton combined in a lightning run of passes for the full-forward to bury in the net.
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Two minutes later, the goal’s value had disappeared however, as Lynch, Evan Fitzgerald and Kevin O’Brien split the posts. However, English had the last score of the half to leave his side leading 1-10 to 0-11 at the break.
Mark Carmody pulled one back on the restart for Partrickswell, before Maher, after plucking the delivery from the sky, had his attempt on goal blocked and was then called back for a free which English converted.
Then, Doon’s next clearance reached Murphy who skinned through the challenges before flicking the blind handpass into the vector of English’s scorching run and he in turn walloped home one of the best goals ever seen at this venerable venue.
However, the Well weren’t giving up. After Byrnes’ point was matched by English’s free, the ‘Well hit top gear with a huge Nigel Foley point, Jason Gillane’s long range free, followed by a point from Kirby and a pair of Byrnes frees had the sides back level with ten minutes to go when. And for also shooting five wides, they should have moved into the lead.
Patrickswell paid for those misses straight from the puckout which won by Chris Thomas. He offloaded into the path of Darragh O’Donovan who cut in from the right past the challenges before rifling the sliotar beyond the despairing ‘Well hurleys.
And no sooner had Aaron Gillane replied with a pointed free, the ‘Well were sucker-punched again when English danced through the tackles across the 13-metre line and found Thomas who made no mistake with his clinical strike to the net.
English’s follow-up point for Doon left the ‘Well facing a deficit of six points with four regulation minutes to go. Byrnes then pulled back one of them going into added time before it was left to Maher’s reply for Doon to finish the scoring.
SCORERS: DOON: Adam English 1-5 (0-4 frees), Chris Thomas 1-1, Darragh Stapleton, Darragh O’Donovan 1-0 each, Kevin Maher 0-3, Gareth Thomas 0-2, Richie English, Eddie Stokes, Donal Coughlan 0-1 each; PATRICKSWELL: Diarmaid Byrnes 0-5 (3 frees), Aaron Gillane 0-4 (3 frees), Patrick Kirby 0-3, Cian Lynch 0-2, Jack Kelleher, Evan Fitzgerald, Kevin O’Brien, Mark Carmody, Nigel Foley, Jason Gillane (free) 0-1 each.
DOON: Tomás Lynch; Tommy Hayes, Eoin Fitzgibbon, Richie English; Cian O’Donovan, Jack Ryan, Chris Thomas; Darragh O’Donovan, Barry Murphy; Kevin Maher, Adam English, Eddie Stokes; Gareth Thomas, Darragh Stapleton, Donal Coughlan. SUB: Mike O’Brien for Eddie Stokes (49 minutes).
PATRICKSWELL: Jason Gillane; Kelvin Lynch, Cian Fitzgerald, John Flynn; Mark Carmody, Nigel Foley, Evan Fitzgerald; Diarmaid Byrnes, John Murray; Cian O’Gorman, Cian Lynch, Jack Kelleher; Patrick Kirby, Kevin O’Brien, Aaron Gillane. SUBS: John Kirby for John Murray (59 minutes), Tom O’Brien for Patrick Kirby (59 minutes).
REFEREE: Johnny Murphy (Ballylanders).