Despite a whole host of wides, Naas prove just too good again
Naas' Harry Carroll is tackled by Éire Óg Corra Choill's Jack Higgins
THE worrying statistic for the rest of the county’s senior hurling clubs from this Group A opener in the UPMC Senior Hurling Championship at Manguard Park on Saturday was that Naas shot eighteen wides over the course of the hour and still ended up with twenty-one points to spare over Éire Óg Corra Choill.
Most of that inaccuracy came in an opening half that won’t have overly pleased manager Tom Mullally, but the six-in-a-row chasing champions still found the net three times to put the game to bed before the interval and improved their shooting after the break to comfortably dispose of limited opposition.
Eire Óg were wasteful too, shooting sixteen wides themselves over the course of the hour, something you can ill-afford against Naas.
Naas had five misses on the board inside ten minutes, having failed to add to Jack Sheridan’s early point and Éire Óg drew level with Pa Freeman’s free after six minutes.
But after points from Fionn Maher and a monster Sheridan free from his own half, Naas found the space in their opponent’s rearguard to strike for three goals in eight minutes.
Kevin Aherne was the first to pounce, driving across Alo Hackett and into the top left corner after thirteen minutes. Brian Byrne might have had a second immediately afterwards with Hackett saving well, though it was pulled back for a foul. Sheridan drove the free low but just wide of the post.
The second goal arrived on seventeen minutes when Maher sent Ciarán Tobin through for the finish and with Éire Óg creaking, Byrne brought another save out of Hackett before setting up Sheridan for an improvised finish to the net after twenty-one minutes.
Jack Higgins and Pádraic Cribben pointed for Éire Óg during that spell, but they were outscored four points to three in the run up to half-time with Simon Leacy, Sheridan (two) and Maher on target for Naas and Higgins (two) and Freeman responding. Half-Time: Naas 3-7 Éire Óg 0-6.
With the cushion of those goals, the second half was played at training ground pace with Naas largely content to sharpen up their point taking and Éire Óg unable to create any goalscoring chances of note.
A Freeman free opened the post-interval scoring with Rian Boran, Sheridan and Daire Guerin hitting back for Naas before Daniel Murray got forward for a fine Éire Óg score.
Sheridan, who ended on 2-8, reeled off three in a row from a free and two ‘65s before the excellent Tobin added two more points to his personal tally, stretching the Naas lead to 3-15 to 0-8 by the 49th minute.
Scott Cramer offered brief resistance with his side’s last point of the game but after points from Leacy, Kevin Whelan and Tobin again, Sheridan’s goal from a determined Leacy burst down the middle sealed a comfortable two points for the champions.
Referee Conor Daly, in an act of mercy, presumably, called time after only fourteen seconds of injury time.
Considering that Naas fielded without James Burke and two of the Boran brothers, Cian and Conan, it was another remarkable show of strength from the overwhelming favourites to add another county title to their haul.
