Piltown claim Leinster League honours with big win over Ballinakill

For the second week in a row a Kilkenny club was celebrating Leinster Hurling league success after Piltown defeated Ballinakill of Laois in the Division 2 Adult Hurling decider in UPMC Nowlan Park on Sunday afternoon.

The game took place as the precursor to the Leinster Hurling Championship clash between Kilkenny and Dublin and while it had none of the drama of the game afterwards, it was still a decisive success for Piltown.

In truth the game was over as a contest before it even really got going, after Piltown raced clear in the opening quarter and while the Laois opponents did mount a comeback in the second half, the South Kilkenny side were comfortable winners in the end.

Niall O’Brien and Robbie Tobin got the goals for the winners in what is a decent start to the year with some early season silverware.

Piltown raced out of the traps with Niall O’Brien and Cian Kinsella very much to the fore and when midfielder Robbie Tobin blasted home a cracking goal, it looked all one way traffic as PJ Fahy’s outfit went into a 1-7 to 0-1 lead.

An Ethan Drury effort was well overdue for Ballinakill but it was still relentless attacking down the other end with DJ Knox, Niall O’Brien, Aidan Walsh and Daryl Maye all scoring in succession.

Eddie Dwyer and Brian Duggan tapped on further scores but Piltown’s second goal in the 25th minute dented any momentum they might have been gathering with Niall O’Brien rifling home a shot into the top corner beyond the reach of Ballinakill stopper Paul Simms.

Piltown then went on to score six further points on the trot with O’Brien and Kinsella doing much of the groundwork and team captain Billy O’Callaghan also finding his range from play.

Ballinakill did respond with a well placed Ben O’Mara score before the break but as the teams changed ends, Piltown led 2-17 to 0-5.

Piltown started the second half like a team that kind of felt it was job done as not only did it take eight minutes for them to register on the scoreboard but prior to that they had also conceded 1-5 on the trot.

Two points from play by Ethan Drury and Shem Fitzpatrick git the ball rolling for the chasing team and they had a little more optimism to work with when Fitzpatrick got his side’s first goal asthe sliotar evaded the diving James Norris.

Further quickfire efforts from Brian Duggan and Ben O’Mara got the deficit back to 10 points before Piltown eventually sprung to life.

Niall O'Brien, Shane O’Dwyer and Daryl Maye exchanged efforts with Brian Duggan, Eddie Dwyer and Cia O’Shaughnessy to leave Piltown leading on a 2-20 to 1-13 scoreline by the halfway mark of the second half.

There was then a real challenge game feel throughout the final quarter as anytime Ballinakill would score, Piltown would reply in kind and the game was wrapped up long before Dublin official Rory Hanley called time on the contest.

The Laois club who are located near the Kilkenny border did have their chances all the same to make a proper mark in the final quarter.

Centre forward Shem Fitapatrick got clear for a goal chance but his effort was well saved by James Norris and the Piltown goalkeeper produced further heroics a couple of minutes later when Ballinakill were awarded a penalty but the shot from fellow no.1 Paul Simms was denied.

Piltown then finished out the game with scores from Niall O’Brien, Cian Kinsella and Andrew Phelan as they took home a 2-26 to 1-17 success.

Piltown: James Norris; Aidan Walsh, Joe Cooney, Sean O’Neill; Gavin Flynn, Andrew Phelan, Kevin Walsh; Shane O’Dwyer, Robbie Tobin; Billy O’Callaghan, Martin Power, DJ Knox; Cian Kinsella, Niall O’Brien, Daryl Maye.

Subs: Eoin Reid for Walsh, 35 mins; Neil Moriarty for Maye, 45 mins; Kevin Brophy for Maye, 55 mins; Shane Walsh for Flynn, 55 mins.

Ballinakill: Paul Simms; Noel Duggan, Ian Shanahan, Robbie Kennedy; Daniel Bergin, Ryan Quinlan, Ethan Drury; Brian Duggan, Andrew McDonagh; Dylan Byrne Gray, Shem Fitzpatrick, Eddie Dwyer; Conor Delaney, Ben O’Mara, Cian O’Shaughnessy.

Subs: Daniel Bergin, James O’Mahony.

Referee: Rory Hanley (Dublin)