| Murphys at the double as Gabriels are
overpowered By David Thorpe
Fr. Murphys added the senior hurling league title to their championship
crown with a hard-fought victory over St. Gabriels at Ruislip.Gabriels
probably shaded it in terms of possession in the opening half but missed
chances from their forwards cost them dearly. They opened the scoring with
a Colm Mitchell point on seven minutes before Murphys replied with a score
from the excellent Simon Byrne.
London star Eric Kinlon fired Murphys ahead on 10 minutes — a lead which
was stretched further with scores from Mick Ryan and Padriag Harrington
while Gabriels could muster only a nippy single from Paddy Finneran in reply.
That left the half-time scores 0-6 to 0-2 in favour of the county champions.
That was hardly a reflection on the general play with the Gabriels midfield
enjoying at least parity of possession, but the six wides to just two from
Murphys tell their own story.
Fr. Murphys seized the initiative at the start of the second-half with
five unanswered points in the opening 10 minutes — the best of which came
from Byrne shooting at an angle and Mick O’Hara who fired over from range.
Murphys were now hunting for goals but they got little change out of
the excellent Gabriels full-back line with Alan Nevin outstanding.
After this initial flurry of activity the game settled into a pattern
with the sides swapping scores.
Mick O’Meara had the beating of his man all day and was an increasingly
influential figure on the game rattling over a brace of unanswered points
either side of the 50-minute mark to reduce the gap to five points.
In a reversal of the first-half it was now Gabriels who had to weather
a defensive storm and live off scraps at the other end.
Their forwards were inferior to the task however and the Dagenham lads
never looked like achieving parity.
It required some excellent defending from Nevin on 53 minutes to prevent
a Murphys goal and from that move Gabriels advanced rapidly up the field
through Paddy Finneran and Mick O’Meara to free Barry Dolan who kept his
cool to fire into the net from close range.
The winning margin was just about a fair reflection of the general play.
Murphys were sharp in attack — an area which has long been a problem
for the Gabriels — and that was the difference between the sides on the
day.
Best for Gabriels were Alan Nevin, Mick O’Meara and Paddy Finneran while
the winners were well-served by Simon Byrne, and Mick Ryan.
|
