Minors draw in thriller
Craanford 3-12 v 2-15 Blackwater
In what was a thriller of a game in the minor hurling championship, the lads dug deep to pull out a equalising score two minutes into injury time, with Johnny producing an excellent piece of skill to point.
The lads had lead at one stage by 7 points with 12 to go but Craanford finished the stronger. We started off at a good pace with Seamus unlucky not to goal after the Craanford keeper made a great stop. The men in white were leading 4-2 before with 5 gone before we notched three in a row to lead by 1. On 13 minutes Craanford had their first goal but we strongly replied, scoring two of our own to be behind by 1 with 15 minutes gone on the clock. A minute later, we had the ball in the net, Jimmy Whelan doing brilliantly to win the ball in the corner rounding his man and placed a pin point pass to Alan who finished low to the net. We increased that lead to 4 a few minutes later before Craanford had their second goal to bring it back to a 1 point game. We pointed again before half time to lead by 2 at the turn.
We got the perfect start two minutes into the second period, a brilliant ball down the line down the line to Johnny and he rounded his man and finished well to the net. He followed that up with a point before Craanford responded with two of their own but yet again, we replied strongly scoring a further 2 points to lead by 7. Craanford started to exert pressure and pointed two from play before they broke the Blackwater rear guard yet again to goal to leave just two between the sides. 4 minutes later the sides were level and with Craanford in the ascendancy, they pointed a free to lead. We needed something exceptional and that came, Johnny won the dirty ball and shot first time from the sideline on the 60 without looking and it sailed straight over the black spot to level the game, an outstanding score.
So the lads stay in third in the table and play again on Sunday at home to Ballynestragh Gaels at 11am.
Scorers: Johnny 1-05, Alan 1-01, Ciaran 0-5 (0-3 frees), Jimmy 0-2, Kealan 0-1, Adam Murphy 0-1 (0-1 free)
