Battling performance from senior hurlers but still without points

Back 22/02/2023 @ 01:09 | hurlingnews | Battling performance from senior hurlers but still without points

Sligo senior hurlers ended up with a second defeat in this year’s league when Meath took all the points away from the sides’ Allianz NHL Div 2B clash at Markievicz Park on Sunday.

The final margin of six points was somewhat flattering to the men from the Royal County who flashed on three later scores to put a distance between the teams at the final whistle.

For many the game will go down as a two-man shootout between Sligo’s forward talisman Andrew Kilcullen and Meath's Padraig O'Hanrahan with Kilcullen finishing on nine points and O’Hanrahan on an outstanding 15.

Sligo opened strongly with Kilcullen notching four points – all from placed balls before O’Hanrahan opened the Meath accounts.

A second point from Meath for centre forward Nicky Potterton was followed by Sligo’s first from play from Kilcullen again to leave the scores at 0-5 to 0-2 after 12 minutes.

Meath began to get dominance in the middle of the field as the experienced Pa Ryan and Martin Healy started to exert control. Two more O’Hanrahan points and a fine score from play from an acute angle near the sideline by Niall McLarnon for Meath had the sides level on 17 minutes.

Sligo were still getting their chances however and Math keeper Charlie Ennis did extremely well to deny Conor Hanniffy a goal.

O’Hanrahan and Kilcullen swapped two points each before Sligo’s Tomas Cawley split the posts with a magnificent effort  from nearly 70m and at the sideline on 24 minutes to restore his side’s advantage.

O'Hanrahan levelled matters again and then give his side the lead for the first time on 27 minutes. A huge drive from almost half way from midfielder Pa Ryan extended the lead to two and then two more from O'Hanrahan saw Meath into a four-point lead as the first half clicked into added time, 

Sligo completed the first half scoring as Diarmuid Hanniffy slotted a long range free on the stroke of half time to see Sligo go into the break three down - 0-12 to 0-9.

The tit for tat contest continued in the opening exchanges of the second half as O’Hanrahan and Hanniffy exchanging two frees each before Sligo got the game’s first goal when he finished cooly after a fine through ball from Cawley.

Meath however were again beginning to get the upper hand and points from Ryan, his midfield partner Martin Healy and O’Hanrahan put them back in front.

Further points from O'Hanrahan and Healy extended the Meath advantage to three with ten minutes to go.

Sligo had a glimmer of hope when Meath were reduced to 14 men with eight minutes to go, followed by another Kilcullen point but it was to be Sligo’s last score of the day as O’Hanrahan, Ryan and substitute Jack Regan added points to give the visitors six-point margin on the full-time whistle.  

SLIGO; Luke Comerford, Darragh Cawley, James Weir, Kevin O'Kennedy (C), Niall Feehily, Rory McHugh, Ronan Molloy, Niall Kilcullen, Fionn Connolly, Conor Hannify, Eddie O'Donoghue, Thomas Cawley (0-1), Diarmuid Hannify (0-3 f), Andy Kilcullen (0-9 6f, 2 65’s), Joe McHugh (1-0)

Subs; Liam O'Kelly-Lynch for O'Donoghue (71)

MEATH; Charlie Ennis (C), Stephen Morris, Adam O'Connor, Brendan McKeon, Kyle Donnelly, James Toher, James Kelly, Pa Ryan (0-3), Martin Healy (0-1), Simon Ennis, Nicholas Potterton (0-1), Niall McLarnon (0-1), Sean Quigley, Mikey Cole, Padraig O'Hanrahan (0-15 12f).

Subs; Mickey Burke for O'Connor, Jack Regan (0-1) for Mikey Cole, Patrick Barnwell for Simon Ennis, Tom Shine for McLarnon, Joe Cole for Potterton.