02/07/17. Cloghran. 

AFL Div 6. 

Lucan Sarsfields 2-10 (1-7) v 2-9 (2-2) Whitehall Colmcilles. 

NCunningham. SKeher. CHickey. GHealy. FMcGrath. AKirwan. SCollins(0-1). DHerlihy(0-1). MMoran. TBradley. PCarroll. PSloan(0-1). GHamilton(0-3). JDoyle(1-1). CTorsney(0-2).  

Subs. BCreed(1-2). NMcKiernan. AO'Neill. 

So what really was the final score?? Ref gave Lucan a point advantage, as shown above. Whitehall management reckoned it should've been 2pts. I had a 3point margin. Ref confirmed the half time scores. So which of the 2nd half scorers didn't score?

All that mattered was that Lucan made it over the line, and it was never anything but a very tight match. It was also a memorable match, but we'll come to that. All in good time. 

Whitehall attacked with intent from the throw in, & it was obvious they had every intention of making Lucan's visit as uncomfortable as possible. Their early shooting let them down, & it was GHamilton who opened Lucan's account with 2 rapid fire points. Had he finally found his kicking boots? A short kick out at the other end went astray, & as we all know, errors inside your own 20m line come at a high price. Whitehall immediately added a point, & with 10mins on the clock it was very much game on. Whitehall were lucky to keep their full complement when SKeher ran into an old style clothes line, & was lucky to hold onto his head. Shortly after a defence splitting DHerlihy free gave CTorsney the chance to open his account. PSloan levelled matters, & things looked a little more rosy. Not for long. Route 1 ball, ended up stranding the whole Lucan defence, & NCunningham had no chance. Another point left a lot of work to do, on a day when there were no easy scores. PSloan carried from defence, PCarroll continued the run to 13m line, a great transfer to JDoyle, who exchanged passes with DHerlihy, & finished cooly to the net. Points from Hammy, a Doyler free & SCollins saw out the half. 

It's ok that wasn't a typo.....Simon did successfully negotiate kicking the ball between the posts. It's almost certainly on utube at this stage. 

The 2nd half started well with a good DHerlihy point, following good work from MMoran. CTorsney followed suit & with a 3pt advantage Lucan looked in control, but in 3mins Whitehall added 3 pts, to level matters by the 12th minute. The next 8mins were a true arm wrestle as both teams sought leverage. An advantage. Any advantage. 

Banisteoir Donal Crowley threw the dice. He went to Spain for his hols....should have gone to Vegas. He rolled a couple of 6s today. Brian Creed was thrown into the fray, with 10mins to make an impression. 

20th min Whitehall keeper took a kick out. Brian took a superb mark. 

21st min Brian was on hand to pop that much needed point. 

22nd min Peter Carroll delivers an exquisite cross field ball in front of the rampaging Brian. There is some debate which part of his anatomy connected last with the ball, but no matter, Brian & the ball ended up in the net. 

23rd min. Brian points again. 

24th min. Brian drags down Whitehall half back, on the half way line. You guessed it. Black card. 

In Hollywood this is known as a cameo. Film stars get big bucks for them. Brian's no Brad Pitt, & he certainly won't be getting big bucks, but it was the best 4mins I've ever seen. 

Whitehall managed last 2 points, but Lucan saw out the final mins with some controlled possession. Lucan management were worried about an equalising goal, but according to the ref a point would have sufficed. For the record I reckon it was 2-11 v 2-8.

Hurling Reports

The action this week was in minor league with the Minor As losing to St Vincent's mid week and the Minor B's exacting revenge against the same opposition on Sunday - see match reports below.

Lucan were well represented on and off the field for the Dublin minor hurlers in the Leinster final. Unfortunately they lost out to a very good Kilkenny team. However they still progress to the all-Ireland quarter final and could have a big say in the championship yet.

MHL1: Lucan Sarsfields 0-12 St Vincent's 2-8.

Lucan conceded 2 early goals and were always chasing the game after that. The first half was played in driving rain and conditions were very difficult for hurling. The half time score was 2-6 to 0-4 in St Vincent's favour and it looked ominous for Lucan. However the weather and Lucan were both much improved in the second half. Herkus Sviglinskas stormed into the game and drove Lucan on from midfield but they never really threatened the goal they needed and time ran out at the end. Rob Ward, Herkus, and Cian McHugh were most prominent for Lucan on the night.

Lucan Team: C Murray, I Crowley, E Reynolds, E O'Connor, G Millea, R Ward 0-1, E Higgins, A McNulty 0-1, H Sviglinskas, C McHugh 0-7 (0-6f), E Seery, O O'Brien 0-1,  A Murphy, A Carroll, C Keane 0-1.

MHL4: Lucan Sarsfields 0-17 St Vincent's 2-09.

With Whitehall conceding to us on Wednesday night, getting an actual win was important against Vincent's. We started well with Alex Hanley getting an early point. It was nip and tuck for the first half of the half with not much between the sides. The Lucan backline Zach Meade, Paul Murtagh and Daniel Coogan all worked hard. Eoghan Gately had good control over the half back line. Alex Bourke was playing one of his best games in the Lucan shirt. Cillian Hogan and Alan Lynch moved the ball with pace. St Vincents got the upper hand later in the half leaving it 2-7 to 6 points for Vinnies at half time. 

The second half saw Lucan playing with the breeze. Dylan Kelly, Ben Mullins and Cillian Hogan getting scores in quick succession.This was to turn out a much better half. Throughout the match, the Vinnies keeper pulled off some wonderful saves keeping them on top for much of the game. However, Vinnies only managed to score 2 points in the second half, leaving Lucan to keep ticking away at the scoreboard until eventually in the last 4 mins they finally got on top. Great win with much improvement all over the field.

Lucan Team: Thomas Dempsey, Zach Meade, Paul Murtagh, Daniel Coogan, David Connolly, Eoghan Gately 0-3, Alex Bourke, Cillian Hogan0-1, Dylan Kelly 0-4,  Eoin Gormley 0-1, Jack Butler, Ben Mullins 0-2, Alex Hanley 0-6,  Sean O'Connell.