Walterstown 3-13, St Vincent's/Curraha 4-13

St Vincent's/Curraha secured an opening round win in this year's Division 2 Minor Championship after a high scoring and entertaining game v Walterstown last Friday night.

Played in perfect weather conditions in Walterstown, St Vincent's/Curraha raced into an early 1-1 to no score lead courtesy of livewire centre-forward Conor Moriarty who was ably assisted by Sean Keogh, Andrew Battersby, Ryan Hand and centre-back Conor O'Farrell. Walterstown were desperately trying to get to grips with the pace of the game and managed to slot over several points which kept them in the game. Moriarty added another 1-1 before Walterstown hit over some fine long range scores to peg back a lively St Vincent's/Curraha team. Further points were added by Moriarty (2), Andrew Battersby (1) and Ryan Hand (1) to leave the half-time score St Vincent's/Curraha 2-8, Walterstown 0-9.

St Vincent's/Curraha suffered a blow when county minor and full-back Niall Murphy didn't take the field for the second half after sustaining an arm injury in a fall in the first half. Sub Niall McClarnon started the second half and immediately slotted into the game with some good runs. Indeed, it was McClarnon who was in the right place at the right time to take a pass from Conor Moriarty and slot the ball into the net to further stretch the away team's lead. However, Walterstown launched an attack straight form the kick-out and ended up winning a penalty which was duly converted to give the home team hope. Further misfortune ensued for St Vincent's/Curraha when 10 minutes into the second half, Conor Moriarty was black carded following a rugby style tackle. Evan Connor was thrown into the fray and acquitted himself well in his first minor appearance. St Vincent's/Curraha had to dig deep and midfielder Brian Joyce was having his best game for some time with some excellent catches and powerful runs. They re-introduced Niall Murphy who had sufficiently recovered following his earlier fall and slotted him into full-forward in a positional switch. He caused havoc for the Walterstown defence scoring a point and setting up Nigy Hand for St Vincent's/Curraha's 4th goal of the game. To their credit, Walterstown never gave up and raised their own green flags in a nail biting closing 10 minutes. However, late points from Nigy Hand (1), Mark Phelan (1) and Sean Keogh (2) saw St Vincent's/Curraha finish the stronger and win by 3 points in a game they led from start to finish

Final Score: Walterstown 3-13, St Vincent's/Curraha 4-13

St Vincent's/Curraha: Jack O'Connor, Conor Harford, Niall Murphy (0-1), Andrew Moriarty, Andrew McEntee, Conor O'Farrell, Mark Phelan (0-1), Brian Joyce, Sean Keogh (0-2), Adam White, Conor Moriarty (2-6), Andrew Battersby (0-1), Nigy Hand (1-1), David Morgan, Ryan Hand (0-1)

Subs: Niall McClarnan (1-0) for Niall Murphy (inj), Evan Connor for Conor Moriarty (BC) and Niall Murphy for David Morgan.

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