U14 Hurlers battle hard against O’Loughlins.

After a lacklustre performance against St Fiacres on Monday evening the St Martins U14 panel earned a deserved draw against O Loughlins B on Thursday evening.

St Martins started slowly and some basic handling errors saw them cough up some easy scores in the first half. Justin Manning manfully tried to hold the defence together at centre back and had a tremendous game for the full hour. Conor Mulhall kept us in touch with 1-1 and a Daragh Quinlan point from a free left the scores at 4-4 to 1-2 at half time.

The introduction of Donal and Daragh Coughlan increased the work rate in the second half and the whole team responded with a magnificent effort. Adam Agar stormed into the game and goals from Jack Murphy, Ronan Shore and a bullet from James Dowling saw St Martins edge two points clear with minutes to go. Loughlins went down the field and were fortunate to goal when a ferocious shot was almost saved by Tristan Roche, who had a great debut.

Great credit is due to the entire team who battled to the final whistle and were rewarded when they were awarded a free 40 yards out. With one point in it and aware that it was the last puck of the game, Daragh Quinlan stepped up and pointed the free to ensure a fantastic draw for the home team.

Final score 5-5 t o 5-5. The lads will have learnt extensively from the effort required to win matches and this should help them in the weeks ahead.

The team lined out as follows:

Tristan Roche, Paul Murphy, Robert Dowling, Tommy Butler, Daragh O Shea, Justin Manning, John Murphy, Adam Agar, Daniel Comerford, Ronan Shore, Harry Kealy, Andrew Buggy, Conor Mulhall, Dan Doyle, Daragh Quinlan. Subs used: Donal Coughlan, Darragh Coughlan, Jack Murphy, James Dowling and panel members Shane Brennan and Jack Apazatto. Missing on the night due to rugby commitments were Cian McCormick, Liam Brennan and Colm Kealy while James Carrigan was injured.

Selectors: Donncha Quinlan, PJ Shore, James Kelly, Niall Clancy, Martin Dowling