Morrissey fires his Sarsfields side to a vital win

Sarsfields 0-17

Padraig Pearses 0-15

Patrick Earley in Duggan Park

Sarsfields moved joint top in Group 2 of the Senior ‘A’ Hurling Championship with a hard-fought win over a resilient Padraig Pearses side in Duggan Park on Sunday.

Seen as a must win match for both sides, Sarsfields were never behind in this game, largely due to the accuracy of Niall Morrissey, who tallied 0-13 (all frees) from 14 shots at the target.

In truth, Pearses were architects of their own downfall. Given the deadly accuracy of Morrissey, the Gurteen/Ballymacward men were always going to face an uphill task when conceding 17 frees over the course of the hour.

The loss of Cyril Donnellan to injury just after half-time was a key moment in the match. Although Donnellan had not made much of an impact on proceedings in the opening half, his leadership may have proved crucial when Pearses managed to reel Sarsfields in and level the game at 0-15 each, with three minutes of normal time still to play.

The game lacked fluency for large periods. Sarsfields failed to register a score from play until Joseph Cooney’s 20th minute strike but despite that, they still led 0-6 to 0-3, Morrissey having already found his range on five occasions.

They led by three before Tomás Flannery opened the scoring for Padraig Pearses in the 7th minute, and after missing some early opportunities from play as well as a placed ball, Ronan Bellew landed his first score of the day to reduce the margin to a single point.

Cooney’s 20th minute score led to a strong finish to the half from Sarsfields, where they would add a further four scores. Kevin Cooney notched the pick of these and he also won one of three frees they were to score before the break.

It was far from plain sailing, however, with Ronan Bellew reducing the margin to two, before Cyril Donnellan had the opportunity to score the first goal of the game. After catching a Fergal Flannery puckout, Donnellan turned with eyes only for goal, and got his shot away despite the intense pressure of three Sarsfields defenders, only to see his effort blaze across the face of goal and wide.

Bellew added another point from a free and Tomás Flannery tallied his second from play on the stroke of half time to reduce the deficit to four at the break; 0-10 to 0-6.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.