Playing in the Leinster Championship they were in a group with Kerry, Kildare and Laois, the Carlow minor hurlers were always going to up against it but even though they lost all three games, they were competitive in all them and the benefit showed last Saturday when they beat Wicklow by 3-20 to 0-9 in the Peadar O’Laithain Cup semi-final, even without top scorer Ruairi Murphy.
Alan Roche’s side made the ideal start when Alan Wall got in for a goal inside the opening minute and the manager said that was the perfect start.
“We said we’d go gung-ho at the start at see what happened. Goals win games and we got three and Wicklow didn’t get any. We were on the receiving end of that last week when Laois got goals and we didn’t. We got that first goal and that really settled us down.
“We were very, very disappointed with our performance against Kerry in the Leinster Championship. Against Kildare we picked it up and picked it up again against Laois. It’s about trying to get these young men to believe that they are good enough to play for Carlow and are good enough to play against the big boys. That is what we are trying to achieve every day and to make sure that they are good enough to play someday for the Carlow seniors, that’s all we want,” said Roche.
Alan Wall scored an early goal for the Carlow minor hurlers against Wicklow last weekend
Photo: Pat Ahern
With the confidence of that goal, Carlow surged on and scored some terrific points, with all six forwards contributing handsomely but it was wing back Ruarc O’Neill who scored the best point of the game from the left sideline in the 10th minute.
Carlow were 1-11 to 0-6 ahead going into the last six minutes of the first half and they then added well taken goals from James Brennan and Ciaran Kavanagh and they led 3-13 to 0-6 at half time and Roche was pleased with the manner in which his forwards took on the scoring mantle in Murphy’s absence.
“When you are missing the quality of Ruairi Murphy, the other lads stood up to a man. Ruairi got most of our scores in the other games but fair play to the lads, they put their shoulder to their wheel and got us over the line. Shane (McCarthy) did really well on the frees too, Ruairi is a very high quality free taker but Shane showed there that on his day he’s as good as him,” he said.
The only black mark on the game came when Charlie Byrne was shown a straight red card in the 42nd minute and he will now miss Saturday’s against Antrim in Crumlin. It’s a harsh lesson for a young player, who was playing so well, to learn but Roche said it might inspire his team-mates next week.
“They are young men, and Charlie was absolutely devastated. He was playing very well. He came in this year, we’ve christened him ‘Big Bird’ and he’s an absolute gentleman. The poor man is heartbroken but hopefully we can go now and bring back that cup and if we do it will be for Charlie,” said Roche.
The highlight of the second half for Carlow, apart from some excellent free taking by McCarthy, came in the 52nd when Peter Lynch brilliantly saved Adam Lifely’s well struck penalty
“Peter is a man we asked to go in goal. Finlay, our sub keeper is there as well, and they are pushing each other on every day. They are not goalkeepers for their clubs, we asked them would they like a crack at the goals and they said yeah. They are as good as each other but that was some save, it was some save, and it probably took the oxygen out of Wicklow. We went down and got three points after that,” said Roche.
Carlow now play Antrim in Saturyday’s final in O’Toole Park in Crumlin, Dublin at 1pm and Roche hopes his team can lift the trophy before getting back to Netwatch Cullen Park for the little matter of his native county taking on Carlow in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship.
“It’s going to be a massive, massive task to get over Antrim next week but hopefully we can do that and then the plan is to get back in time to watch Carlow and Kilkenny in Netwatch Cullen Park. I’m the Carlow minor manager and from Gowran so I’ll go home happy after that game whatever happens. I’ve friends there, Conor Phelan is a good friend of mine, Tom Grinsell will be on the line for Kilkenny and he was with Carlow years ago with Colm Bonnar. I was St Mullins for the last couple of years so it will be a great oul day, there will be a bit of banter anyway.”
