Abbey men spring big surprise in reaching showdown

Abbeyknockmoy 1-13

Kinvara  1-10

Pádraic Ó Ciardha At Kenny Park

ABBEYKNOCKMOY will be playing Senior B hurling in 2016 after they overcame the pre-game favourites Kinvara in last weekend’s Intermediate semi-final. In a fairly low-scoring game, a quick burst of 1-2 ten minutes from time proved to be enough for the winners as the advanced to the county final on a scoreline of 1-13 to 1-10.

Neither side seemed to come close to hitting top gear in a contest that will be quickly forgotten, but it was Abbeyknockmoy’s greater spread of scorers that proved decisive in the end. The eventual victors’ tally was actually shared between just four players, Paul Flaherty, Damien Rooney, Coleman Maher and Fionnán Garvey, but with Conor Whelan and Alan Leech being the only outfield players to score for Kinvara, even that marginal difference was enough.

The game’s first free came after barely ten seconds when Kinvara’s Brian Carroll was yellow-carded for a foul on Coleman Maher and it was a sign of things to come in what was a very stop-start contest. Paul Flaherty converted the resulting free to put Abbeyknockmoy into the lead and the same man doubled his side’s score two minutes later, also from a placed ball.

A foul on James O’Hara after a decent run allowed Conor Whelan to get Kinvara off the mark and the inter-county player had his side level in the seventh minute. Switching between the full-forward and half-forward lines, Whelan got the sliotar off Shane Byrne before splitting the posts from 45m out.

Good pressure from Coleman Maher then set-up Damien Rooney to put Abbeyknockmoy back in front. Three frees, two from Whelan and one from Paul Flaherty, soon followed, leaving the sides level, 0-4 apiece, with a quarter of an hour played.

Abbeyknockmoy’s Fionnán Garvey produced the game’s first memorable score from play in the 18th minute when, having done well to catch a long pass out of his defence, the corner-forward burst past his man on the outside before firing over close to the right-hand touchline. Kinvara were back level inside a minute, however, when Alan Leech produced his own moment of quality, raising a white flag from inside his own half.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.