Abbeyleix knocked out of Leinster by narrowest of margins

 Laois Intermediate hurling champions Abbeyleix came close to toppling Wicklow’s Senior kingpins Bray Emmets when the sides met in the AIB Leinster Intermediate club championship quarter-final on Saturday afternoon last in Echelon Park Aughrim with a late Christy Moorehouse free stealing victory for the home side.  

Having recovered superbly on two separate occasions during this game, Derek Dunne’s side were left wondering what might have been when the Bray sharpshooter split the posts with time almost up to deny them a chance at taking on the Dublin champions Naomh Barróg in the provincial semi-final.  

Bray Emmets 0-17 

AbbeyLeix St Lazarians 0-16 

Eight second-half wides, three in the closing stages when they had once again regained dominance, would prove extremely costly but the Laois men may well have cause to argue that some of the Bray frees given against them were of the soft variety.  

Having returned to the dressing room three points behind Paul Carley’s side at 0-10 to 0-7 and with the renowned Bray kick in the second half expected, things weren’t looking ultra-positive for the Laois men, but they proceeded to deliver a third-quarter display that left them ahead by 0-13 to 0-11 after 10 minutes of the second half.  

Key to that recovery and, indeed, their overall quality, was the performance of Laois netminder Enda Rowland in goal. He was superb throughout and his puck-outs were of the highest standard in terms of accuracy and distance while he also chipped in with three stunning scores (all frees), with all three from as far away from the Bray goal as the neighbouring parish.  

However, a number of substitutions and an improved Bray Emmets approach all over the field drove the home side to lift their game and they added five points to open up a 0-16 to 0-14 lead.  

Abbeyleix substitute Adrian Dunne fired over to make it a one-point game after 54 minutes, but the Laois champions missed the next three chances before the excellent Eoghan Fennelly levelled the game with the hour almost up.  

Bray managed to work the ball to Ben McCormack who was adjudged to have been fouled by referee Conor Daly and Christy Moorehouse, who had bagged 11 of his side’s scores at that stage, 10 from frees, rifled over at the Rednagh Hill end to give Bray the lead.  

Rowland fired yet another superb restart down the field, but it came off a hurl and over the sideline and when Padraig Doyle struck the sideline ball the final whistle sounded, and Abbeyleix’s Leinster campaign was at an end.  

Christy Moorehouse opened the scoring from a free but Enda Rowland’s hugely impressive puck-out was displayed from the following restart. The Laois netminder was able to land his puck-out down almost on the Bray 21, removing key Bray defenders Padraig Doyle and John Henderson from the action in the process.  

Colm Byrne struck back for the visitors shortly after Bray’s opener after Davy Maloney was robbed by Shaun Fitzpatrick, but the visitors would call Bray netminder Peter Reilly into action in the next two moves, dropping a shot short and then forcing a save when Ciaran Byrne fired a shot towards the Bray goal.  

Aaron Brennan pounced to give Derek Dunne’s side the lead for the first time, but Moorehouse replied with a free two minutes later after a foul on the hugely impressive Eoin McCormack.  

A wasteful spell followed for the visitors. They gave away three balls on the trot, with Mikey Boland firing over from the first, Marc Lennon missing from the second and, surprisingly, Moorehouse blasting wide from 21 yards out from the third.  

Moorehouse made it 0-5 to 0-2 after 15 minutes of what was a very entertaining affair on heavy ground courtesy of two frees but Eoghan Fennelly reduced that with a sweetly struck free after a foul on Aaron Brennan following yet another of Rowland’s puck-outs.  

The Laois netminder then took on the scoring responsibility himself, driving over from inside his own 45.  

A Moorehouse free was followed by a positional switch in the Abbeyleix half-back line as they looked to negate the impact of Eoin McCormack and a Fennelly point from a placed ball made it 0-6 to 0-5 after 20.  

Ciaran Carroll was thwarted by a quality hook from Davy Maloney while Christy Moorehouse registered his only point from play after being picked out by a class sideline cut from the busy Diarmuid Masterson to make it 0-7 to 0-5 after 25.  

The Bray half-back line were beginning to get on top of Rowland's restarts towering centre-back Padraig Doyle intercepted the next one, cleared long to Eoin McCormack who flicked on to Nesbitt who was fouled by the athletic Lawson Oblour with Moorehouse pointing the free.  

Nesbitt fired wide after making a super break up the middle and two Moorehouse frees and points from Aaron Brennan and Shaun Fitzpatrick left the teams heading to the dressing rooms with Bray leading by 0-10 to 0-7 and looking likely to engage their usual second-half burst to put this game to bed.  

But Abbeyleix had other ideas.  

Two early wides for the visitors was followed by a Rowland free, two points from Fennelly (frees), Fitzpatrick, Fennelly (65) and Rowland (free) to leave them ahead by two with Bray certainly not rising to the challenge in those opening 10 minutes of the second half.  

The home side had returned to the lead by the time Ronan McMahon came in for Davy Maloney and the young attacker certainly impressed when he entered the fray as did Ben McCormack who came in for Marc Lennon after 52 with the lead out to 0-16 to 0-13.  

But Abbeyleix weren’t for folding and they brought it back to 0-16 to 0-16 and probably should have been ahead by the time Ben McCormack won that vital free with 61 minutes gone.  

Christy Moorehouse bagged his 12th point with the subsequent free and sent a very impressive Abbeyleix out of the Leinster club championship.