Mt Leinster Rangers 1-15 Castletown Geoghegan 1-13
Carlow champions Mount Leinster Rangers came from six points down late in the first half to eke out a hard-earned two-point over Westmeath's, Castletown Geoghegan, in the Leinster Club senior hurling championship in Mullingar yesterday.
The first half was largely a scrappy affair with both sides overly reliant on their respective free-takers, Denis Murphy and Niall O'Brien. Castletown were already three points to the good when Alan Mangan whipped the ball to the net in the first minute of added-time. John Coady pointed with the last puck of the half to leave the visitors trailing by five at the break (1-7 to 0-5).
An Edward Byrne goal within 50 seconds of the restart and four unanswered points (including three Murphy frees) edged Mount Leinster into the lead (1-9 to 1-8) by the 39th minute. Despite Castletown's best efforts they could never get on level terms.
A nasty skirmish developed immediately the final whistle sounded. However, nobody on either side picked up as much as a yellow card as a result.
MOUNT LEINSTER RANGERS: F Foley; M Doyle, G Doyle, G Kelly (0-1); D Byrne (0-2), R Coady, B Nolan; E Coady, P Nolan; P Coady, E Byrne (1-1), D Phelan (0-1); D Murphy (0-9, 8 frees), J Coady (0-1), HP O'Byrne. Subs: E Doyle for P Coady (half-time), D Byrne for Nolan (36 mins), W Hickey for O'Byrne (46 mins), J Murphy for J Coady (51 mins).
CASTLETOWN GEOGHEGAN: P Maloney; P Fennell, E Dalton, E Óg Clarke; L Varley, R Whelan (0-1), D McDermott; D Fennell (0-1), B Lahart; A Clarke (0-1), N O'Brien (0-10, 0-8 frees), D Lynch; N Kirby, A Mangan (1-0), C Glennon. Subs: D Garvin for P Fennell (42 mins), S Clavin for Lahart (46 mins), P Clarke for Mangan (51 mins), D Gallagher for Glennon (54 mins), C O'Brien for E Clarke (57 mins).
Referee: F Smith (Meath).
