Junior Hurling Championhip Round 3 v Latton

August 17th     

This rescheduled fixture provided the Harps with an excellent opportunity to build on some of the positives from their previous outing against Castleblayney the previous week. A wet evening in Latton set the scene for a slow start from a Harps team that saw 8 changes from the Castleblayney match. Nathan O’Donoghue set out a strong case for his selection at wing forward with two early points getting the Harps off the mark. Latton were a much improved side following their return to hurling last year and the Harps defence had to work hard to keep their forwards at bay with Cathal Power and Dermot McMahon both making clearances from dangerous areas of the field. Latton persevered and the sliotar ended up with their corner forward who forced Seamus McLoughlin into a reflex save. The Harps began to gain a stronger foothold in the game with John Lowry doing a great job sweeping up. A Lowry clearance found its way to Alan Lee who played Nathan O’Donoghue in for the first goal of the game. At the first water break, the Harps found themselves 5 points in the lead. Following the first water break, a quick free from Cathal Power allowed Aidan Burns to stride forward and get his first score of the game. At the other end of the field Latton scored their first point despite Dylan McAree’s best efforts. Just as the game was approaching half time Aidan Burns popped over two quickfire points to establish a 7 points lead. Latton responded just before the whistle to reduce the deficit to 6 points. HT Score: 1-05 to 0-02.

In the second half, the Harps forwards began to link up better and really make the most of some excellent distribution from the likes of McLoughlin and McMahon. Conor Flynn’s introduction at centre forward was a catalyst for some fluid play with his first involvement setting up Adam Cullen for a well-deserved score. Flynn followed this by intercepting a short puckout and taking his first point of the game. Adam Cullen then turned provider when he tapped down a long ball to Ray Lee who also got his first point. The Harps began to push out their lead as the game approached the second half water break with McMahon taking a long range point, Cathal Power scoring a 65’ and Ray Lee also getting his second point of the game. At the second half water break we found ourselves with a strong lead of 1-13 to 0-04. The Harps forwards continued to work hard with some good movement and Ray Lee scored our second goal which was due reward. Some great work from Shane McCabe led to our next two scores as both Power and Sean Conway came forward to score points. The Harps finished strongly with a short free from Power to O’Donoghue seeing the ball end up with McMahon who fired to the net from the edge of the square. The final score of 3-17 to 0-04 was flattering on the Harps and did not fully reflect the endeavours of a hard-working Latton side.

Team & Scorers:

Seamus McLoughlin, Conor Devlin, Dylan McAree, John Lowry, Sean Conway (0-01), Dermot McMahon (1-01), Luke Mulligan, Aidan Burns (0-04), Cathal Power (0-03), Conor O’Neill, Alan Lee, Aron Nutley, Nathan O’ Donoghue (1-03), Adam Cullen (0-01), Michael Gissane.

Subs used: Ray Lee (1-02), Conor Flynn (0-02), Shane McCabe, Anthony Greenan, Conor Forde.