Naas begin quest for seventh successive title with unconvincing win
Naas defeated Coill Dubh in Manguard Park this evening
Without ever being anywhere near their best, Naas began their quest for a seventh successive Senior Hurling title with a nine point win over Coill Dubh at Manguard Park this evening.
It was fair from straight forward though and maybe even class as a missed opportunity for Coill Dubh as it’s hard to imagine Naas being this wasteful in front of goal again. The problem was that Coill Dubh weren’t good enough on the night to capitalise and between the teams they racked up over 20 wides in the first half along before Naas finally found their aim in the second half.
After Mark Delaney had opened the scoring with a sweetly struck sideline ball, the first of two he scored in the first half, Eanna O’Neill hit the back of the net for Coill Dubh with only five minutes on the clock.
With Charlie Carroll on the scoresheet twice in the early stages for Naas, that left Coill Dubh 1-1 to 0-2 ahead but Coill Dubh, who had beaten Naas in the Division 1 League final seven days previously, hit a succession of wides after that which meant they didn’t build on that good start.
Naas were affected by a dose of the “yips” in front of the posts themselves and was almost ten minutes of play before Killian Harrington landed the next score of the game.
A couple of Declan Flaherty points in the last five minutes, and one of them could have been a goal only for a terrific save by Cormac Gallagher to push his shot over the bar, and Delaney’s second from a sideline ball left Coill Dubh 1-6 to 0-5 ahead at half time.
That had us scrambling to check on Naas’ last defeat in the Kildare Senior Championship, the 2018 semi-final against Ardclough, but we needn’t have bothered as the longer the game went on the more dominant they became.
Jack Sheridan didn’t score until the 36th minute but still finished as the game’s top scorer.
Naas didn’t quite kill off Coill Dubh and points by Flaherty and Johnny Byrne, either side of a wonderful effort by Cian Boran, left just two between the teams with eight minutes to play but Naas finally hit the kind of groove that we expect of them and they scored the next eight points before Delaney scored with the last of the game.
Elsewhere, in the other preliminary round tie of the evening, Celbridge beat Maynooth by 3-23 to 4-16.
J Sheridan 0-6 (3fs, 1’65), F O’Sullivan 0-3, MD Moore 0-3, K Harrington 0-3, C Carroll 0-2, C Boran 0-2, R Boran 0-1, E O’Brien 0-1, C Dowling 0-1.
M Delaney 0-5 (3fs, 2s), D Flaherty 0-4 (1’65), E O’Neill 1-0, J Byrne 0-1.
Cormac Gallagher; Kevin Kelleher, Ross Kelly, Evan O’Brien, Peter O’Donoghue, Cian Boran, Harry Carroll; Sean Mac Donncha, Rian Boran; Mac Dara Moore, Charlie Carroll, Liam Walsh, Killian Harrington, Ferran O’Sullivan, Jack Sheridan. Subs: Cathal Dowling for O’Sullivan, b/s 16-19; Liam O’Reilly for O’Donoghue, h/t; Cathal Dowling for Carroll, 38; Peter O’Donoghue for R Boran, 61.
Owen Lenehan; Mark Byrne, Dylan Brereton, Colm Gordon John Dee, Mark Grace, Conor Gordon; Jamie Keena, Johnny Byrne; Eanna O’Neill, Delcan Flaherty, Sean Dunne, Keenan Brereton, Mark Delaney, Enda Keane. Subs: Niall Keane for K Brereton, 21.
Conor Daly.
