Brave Wicklow Minor hurlers fall short as Carlow march on to Peadar O'Laithain Cup final

Carlow 3-20

Wicklow 0-9

Wicklow’s Minor hurlers brought the curtain down on a difficult campaign with a 3-20 to 0-9 defeat at the hands of Carlow in the Peadar O'Laithain Cup semi-final at Echelon Park Aughrim on Saturday afternoon.

A dominant first-half display from the visitors saw them head for the dressing rooms with an insurmountable 3-13 to 0-6 lead over Ray Nolan’s side, who had competed well in many areas of the field but who found their opponents too hot to handle.

The early concession of a goal in the first minute of play was a bad blow for a side who have suffered three heavy defeats in the Leinster championship at the hands of Westmeath, Antrim and Offaly and when the Carlow side opened up a 1-5 to 0-3 lead after 10 minutes, all the signs were that this was going to be another tough hour for the Garden County.

But they fought a good fight. While the full-back line was isolated at times, Cillian Goff, Sean Byrne and Sé Killoran worked hard against a dangerous inside line of Alan Wall, Charlie Byrne and Robbie Ward.

The excellent Adam Lifely registered Wicklow’s opening two scores (two frees) before Marc O’Shea - named at half-back but lining out at full-forward – grabbed the third.

Another Lifely free and a second peach from O’Shea left the scoreboard reading 1-7 to 0-5 at the end of the first quarter, with Ray Nolan shifting Tom Brennan out the field in a bid to pick up more possession in the middle third.

The sharper Carlow lads were causing Wicklow serious headaches and mistakes from the home side weren’t helping matters, either, but at 1-8 to 0-6, Jack O’Leary with a stunner from distance accounting for the extra Wicklow score, things weren’t looking overly pessimistic.

But Carlow would finish the half strong. Three points in as many minutes was followed by a poor goal to concede by Wicklow from the hurl of James Brennan and when Ciaran Kavanagh found the bottom corner of Keith Lawless’ net close to the end of the first half, the gap was too much even though the home side were turning around to shoot towards the dressing rooms in the second half.

Any hope they had involved a bright start, but Carlow popped over three early points to leave 19 points between the sides, Adam Lifely answering with a bomb after great work from Jack Gregan who had a fine second half.

Carlow suffered the loss of the talented Charlie Byrne to a straight red card after he appeared to headbutt Jack Gregan and points from Cillian Goff and Paddy Marrinan gave the home supporters plenty to cheer about.

But the visitors added another four points while Adam Lifely watched as his well-struck penalty was brilliantly saved by Peter Lynch in the Carlow goal.

A brave effort from Ray Nolan’s side, but there’s no arguing that the Carlow lads were operating at a slightly higher level.

A tough campaign for the Wicklow lads but they can’t be faulted for effort as they gave their all in all their games and the campaign will hopefully stand to them in a really positive way as they move on to the club championship later this year.

Wicklow: Keith Lawless (Glenealy); Sean Byrne (Aughrim), Cillian Goff (0-1, Glenealy), Sé Killoran (Annacurra); Rian Rooney (Carnew Emmets), Donnacha Murphy (Avoca), Chris O’Toole (Kiltegan); Jack O’Leary (0-1, St. Patrick’s), Adam Lifely (0-4, 3f, Annacurra); Jack Gregan (Carnew Emmets), Luke Cotter (Bray Emmets), Paddy Marrinan (0-1, Éire Óg Greystones); Tom Brennan (Carnew Emmets), Marc O’Shea (0-2, Aughrim), Finian Hughes (Kilcoole). Subs: Sean Craig (Bray Emmets) for L Cotter (27), Darragh Leacy (Glenealy) for F Hughes (h-t), Eoin Lalor (St. Patrick’s) for J Gregan, Callum Clark Toomey (Éire Óg Greystones) for J O’Leary, Noah Hayes (Kiltegan) for S Killoran (all 54).

Carlow: Peter Lynch; Seanie McMahon, Mike Geraghty, Kieran McDonald; Eoin Doyle, Aodhan Kehoe, Ruarc O’Neill (0-1); Shane McCarthy (0-7, 5f, 1 65), Martin Carroll; Kyle Nolan (0-2), James Brennan (1-1, Ciaran Kavanagh (1-2); Robbie Ward (0-4), Alan Wall (1-0), Charlie Byrne (0-2). Subs: Niall Power for R O’Neill (47), Thomas Sheehan (0-1) for M Carroll (50), Sean Grennan for A Wall, Aaron Walsh Myles for S McMahon, Jack Joyce for J Brennan (all 54)

Referee: Sean Michael Maher (Offaly