Battling Brownstown share the spoils

Castlepollard and Brownstown showed exactly why they occupy the top slots in the Slevin’s Coaches Senior B Hurling Championship in an engaging and gritty game on Sunday afternoon at Lakepoint Park.

Both sides issued a statement on their Mickey Power Cup ambitions in a taut contest that concluded in a draw under the watchful eye of referee Sean Carroll.

The first thirty minutes of this affair suggested that Castlepollard would be the team with the most points come Sunday evening, but a bruising second half saw Brownstown punish their near neighbours for their wides tally.

This was a game with plenty of thrills; a saved penalty, missed opportunities and a glorious comeback as the teams kicked up sand in Mullingar.

Decked out in white Brownstown got a bit of a land right from the throw in. An Emmett Cunneen swing was adjudged to be above the threshold of acceptability and when Carroll flashed a card the red drew audible gasps of shock from the stands.

The ref acknowledged he had pulled out the wrong card and issued the yellow to the Brownstown half forward. That was one of the few breaks the Delvin parish club got in the early phase of the game.

Darragh Tierney was the first name on the scoresheet, and before the conclusion of matters his number eight would have eight Ps marked beside his moniker.

Throughout the opening eight minutes Castlepollard displayed their credentials, clean short passes were combined with long range shots that always seemed to find the man in space. A wonderful link play between Alan Devine and Kevin Brazil saw the corner forward rifled the slitor into the net past James Moore before three minutes had elapsed.

Andrew Dermody had tacked on a point prior to that, and another Tierney point had Mickey Dan Murtagh’s side 1-03 ahead before their opponents had time to settle.

James Fitzsimons broke the duck for his team in the eight minute when the corner forward zipped over a sweet strike. Further Castlepollard scores from Dylan O’Leary and Tierney reasserted their dominance, and though Brownstown may have been stylish in their ripostes from Anthony Mulvaney and Niall Leonard their opponents just appeared more comfortable.

Alan Devine scored points from play either side of a Tierney free and without too much effort Castlepollard were 1-07 to 0-04 ahead after Aaron O’Brien had worked to chip into the lead.

A Fitzsimons free further shortened the gap, but it was a scintillating strike from Brian Guerin that changed the fortunes for the Brownstown men. The wing forward’s goal left it 1-08 to 1-05 with just a couple of minutes on the clock left before the break. Those minutes were enough for Donal Lane to get on the score card, Guerin to bang over another point, and Castlepollard had their own reply through Tierney.

If Castlepollard had been the dominant force of the first period it was Brownstown who dominated the second. That would not have been obvious from the start as Tierney resumed his reliable form. Though he would score two more times in the second 30, his team’s tally would only be increased by Dermody.

For their part Brownstone ratcheted up their efforts. Six different scorers contributed to the seven second half scores that saw them turn around the fortunes of this game. Cunneen, Paddy O’Reilly, two from Leonard, and subs Sean Mulvaney and Jamie Reilly put them in the ascendency.

Had Barry Dowdall not saved a penalty in the 40th minute this game could have slipped away completely for Castlepollard. As it was when Carroll blew up to signal the end it was Brownstown who were the more disappointed of the two teams.

Ref watch

Referee Sean Carroll had a good game, letting proceedings flow and paying little attention to the partisan chimes of the crowd.

Player of the match

Though there were Brownstown players who were well in contention for the accolade it was Darragh Tierney that got the gong for his impressive workrate.

Castlepollard: Barry Dowdall; Ben Murphy, Darragh O’Reilly, Ciaran Fagan; Dylan O’Leary (1p), Conor Gaffney, Sean Lancaster, Darragh Tierney (8p), Eoin English, Cody Ward (1p), David Higgins, Andy Dermody (2p), Allan Devine (2p), Luke Roddy, Kevin Brazil (1g). Subs used: Marcus Lancaster, Brian Gilchrist, Andrew Dowdall, Aaron O’Leary

Brownstown: James Moone, Danny Hevey, Shaun Smith, tom Flynn, Conor Rice (1p), Conor Shaw, Anthony Mulvaney (1p), Paddy O’Reilly (1p), Oisin Kiernan, Brian Guerin (1g1p), Emmett Cunneen (1p), Niall Leonard (3p), Aaron O’Brien (1p), Tiernan Purcell (1p), Jamie Fitzsimons (1p). Subs used: Donal Lane (1p), Sean Mulvaney (1p), Jamie Reilly (1p).