Kilkenny IHL- Dunnamaggin claim overdue first league win

Dunnamaggin put a frustrating opening to the league campaign behind them as they claimed a fully merited six point success over Carrickshock.

The victors had lost all three league meetings so far this term in advance of Saturday’ game in Hugginstown but despite being without the suspended Joe Fitzpatrick, they led all the way and as a result now stand a realistic chance or escaping the relegation battle.

Andy Hickey’s second half goal gave ‘Dunna breathing space on the scoreboard although they appeared to be well on their way to securing the vital league points even before that.

Rower Inistioge have been a bit hit and miss during the league thus far and this will go down as a bad day at the office for them as apart from the first point, it was a clash they trailed for almost it’s entirety.

The Rower have also been very reliant on placed balls in recent weeks and that was again the case here as they only scored seven points from play altogether.

One of those efforts from play was via Tom Doyle in the first attack of the game but these type of attacks were few and far between and Dunnamaggin quickly equalised through a Denis Walsh free before Ray Cody, Ruaidhri Holden, John Fitzpatrick, and Andy Hickey all added further points before the end of the first quarter.

Lyng and a couple of nice play attempts from Jim Ryan kept the Rower within range and they’ll have been disappointed to not find the net after Galavan pulled an attempt past the post when in the clear.

Dunnamaggin who were a much more polished outfit than what they had looked in recent weeks got the scores a lot easier and in John Fitzpatrick, they had the game’s star turn as he scored five points from play of which three arrived in the first half.

By the half-time break, Dunnamaggin led 0-11 to 0-8 but it looked to be still anyone’s game at that point.

Denis Walsh and Peter Kenneally exchanged scores with Galavan at the start of the second half before the Rower moved to within a point when Pat Lyng scored on the back of a well worked move.

That seemed to offer Dunnamaggin a bit of a wake up call as they replied by hitting the next four points on the trot with Walsh and Fitzpatrick continuing to do damage after Victor Costello landed an inspirational effort from his own half.

Galavan and Lyng did add two more points to the free tally for Rower Inistioge but once Andy Hickey netted the game’s only goal on the rebound from an initial effort by Denis Walsh four minutes from time, there was no way back for Seamus Kelly’s defeated team.

The Rower did keep at it with Eoin O’Brien and Jim Ryan going close with goal attempts but Dunnamggin were able to see the game out with a degree of comfort as Denis Walsh added a stoppage time score to bring his point tally for the day to near double figures.

How important this result is for Dunnamaggin we won’t know till after this week’s fixtures but for now they’ll just be glad to be off the mark.

Teams and Scorers

Dunnamaggin: Denis Walsh (0-9, 6fs and 1 ‘65); John Fitzpatrick (0-5); Andy Hickey (1-1); Victor Costello, Ray Cody, Peter Kenneally, Ruaidhri Holden (0-1 each)

Rower Inistioge: Michael Galavan (0-9, 7fs); Jim Ryan (0-3); Paddy Lyng (0-2, 2fs); Pat Lyng, Tom Doyle (0-1 each)

Dunnamaggin: James Logue; Shaun O’Keefe, Harry Walsh, Ian Walsh; Eoghan Kearney, Victor Costello, Darragh O’Keefe; Ray Cody, Paul Kirwan; Andy Hickey, Denis Walsh, Darren Fitzpatrick; John Fitzpatrick, Peter Kenneally, Ruaidhri Holden.

Subs: Alex Moore for D.Fitzpatrick, 52 mins.

Rower Inistioge: Paddy Lyng; Jim Murphy, Ruaidhri Delaney, Shane Ryan; Ruairi Galavan, George Murphy, Pat Lyng; Eoin O’Brien, Eoghan Lyng; Jim Ryan, Conor Joyce, David Kelly; Kevin Murphy, Michael Galavan, Tom Doyle.

Subs: Tom Murphy for Kelly, h-t; Tom O’Callaghan for Joyce, 36 mins; Joe Mulholland for Doyle, 40 mins, Eoin Doyle for J.Murphy, 55 mins.

Referee: Conor Everard (Graigue Ballycallan)