Despite guaranteeing themselves a quarter final of the Go Ahead Junior C Championship, The St Brendan’s Hurlers, sponsored by Bodibro (but today wearing the Football 1st XV kit due to a colour clash) want nothing more than a home Quarter Final and went into the Round 3 fixture against Wild Geese with that prize on the line. 

Both teams had players unavailable due to The Electric Picnic in Stradbally Co Laois, on two weeks earlier than usual this year, but for the players that stayed, we had one edgy encounter. 

Like three weeks ago, St Brendan's got the opening score in the first minute with The Wexican Oisin Carley pointing after JJ ‘72’ Lennon and Shane ‘Harry Styles’ Nolan saw shots blocked or saved. Lennon doubled The Dark Forces lead with a long distance shot from play after a pass from Gary ‘The Heavyweight’ Mason. The away side got their first score shortly afterwards despite Stephen Dunne throwing his hurley at the forward. 

It was fast and furious stuff in the opening few minutes with Jack ‘The Prop’ McGrath pointing from 45 meters after a turnover from The Craughwell Crusader Eanna Larkin. 

Another Wild Geese point followed, indeed the side from Oldtown lead the contest 0-5 to 0-3 with four points on the spin and could have extended the lead after a rasping shot sailed wide past Eoin Ryan. 

22:20 gone in the first half and JJ ‘72’ Lennon got his first score of the game following excellent defending from Alan Walsh and Oisin Daly and a long puck from Michael Harte. 

Both sides traded points after 26th minutes with Lennon again scoring from a free in, a bit of dissent from Wild Geese moved the free in forward an extra 10 meters, something that would happen more than once in the contest, and the referee laid down the law to one Geese player for claiming a shot went over but for the referee to wave wide. 

However, the away side did go into the half time interval leading 0-7 to 0-5. 

St Brendan’s started the second half in typical St Brendan’s fashion with a point directly from the throw in and then converting a free in, Lennon with both points. The two point half time deficit then became a three point lead thanks to a tremendous goal from Liam Kennedy. He may have been in Old Trafford on Friday night watching Manchester United’s Premier League opener against Fulham, but no doubt Cian Walsh unleashed his inner Alex Ferguson by giving the players the hairdryer treatment and had the desired effect. 

Stephen Dunne opened a four point lead with his casual play and shot that had the latitude and eventually the longitude and sailed just over the bar, 1-8 to 0-7. However, that lead was wiped out after Wild Geese hit 1-1 in the space of two minutes, the goal resulted in a weak shot that slowly trickled over the goal line with Eoin Ryan in no mans land. 

Wild Geese retook the lead with a point from play, Stephen Dunne saw a shot saved for a 65 which Lennon converted and made it a level game again 1-10 each. 

Cian Walsh must have been seeing red when his side one point down but soon it was seeing normal colours after the Lennon 65, in fact Lennon made it a hat trick of points within 90 seconds with back to back points and a carbon copy of each other from shots close to the sideline at the Chapelizod Road end of Longmeadows.  

Within a minute St Brendan’s had a 4 point lead with a 60 meter shot from The Wexican Oisin Carley and a 4th point in as many minutes from Lennon. 1-14 to 1-10, that became 1-15 after Michael Harte emerged with possession after a scramble and pass to The Heavyweight Gary Mason and coolly slotted between the uprights for the 15th point. 

One might think that St Brendan’s were home and hosed at that staged but Wild Geese dropped in a free in which was caught and pucked from a couple of inches from goal and Eoin Ryan was beaten for goal for a second time, But St Brendan’s held on to the win in what was an edgy contest which saw four free ins moved 10 meters in what was otherwise a clean sporting encounter. 

Victory over Fingallians in two weeks time will guarantee the home Quarter Final Cian Walsh was craving for. 

Final Score from Longmeadows, St Brendan’s 1-15 Wild Geese 2-10.