Fontenoys bow out of All-Ireland competition

21 December 2022

A BLISTERING start for Connacht champions Tooreen that included a goal and two points from full-forward Cathal Freeman inside the first seven minutes was the catalyst for Liatroim Fontenoys’ eventual exit from the AIB Intermediate hurling championship in Kingspan Breffni on Sunday afternoon.

The Fontenoys had become the first Down team to annex the Ulster Intermediate title with a tour-de-force against Armagh champions Middletown in Corrigan Park a fortnight ago.

This semi-final was supposed to happen on Saturday but the pitch in Cavan was still frozen and the game was postponed for 24 hours.

Judging by the start, it seemed to impact more on the Down champions than on the Tooreen forwards.

Freeman pointed in the second minute and grabbed his goal two minutes later.

By the time he got his second point, Tooreen were 1-3 to 0-1 ahead and there was a mountain for the Fontenoys to climb.

That Freeman failed to score for the rest of the game is a credit to the Liatroim defence, but also emphasised his impact when his team needed him.

Pearse Óg McCrickard did his best to haul them back from the brink with three points, one from a free, one from a 65 and one from play, along with a point from Tiernan Murphy, midway through the half. It was 1-4 to 0-5 after 24 minutes.

However, the Mayo side finished the half stronger with two frees from Sean Kenny and points from Liam Lavin and Eoin Delaney with McCrickard replying with a point from a free and one from play.

Liatroim created a goal-chance in the 29th minute, but a defender got in a late hook and the teams turned around with the Mayo team in control at 1-8 to 0-7.

Pearse Óg closed the gap to a single point in the early minutes of the second half with three more points, but Tooreen responded with their three in-a-row from Boland, Delaney and Regan.

Tiarnan Murphy broke that sequence with a point, but Tooreen pushed on to make the game safe with two Kenny frees and one each from Boland and Delaney.

Sean Duggan threw the Down side a lifeline with a goal in the 54th minute.

But Boland rallied his team-mates with the score of the match from the right wing to make it 1-16 to 1-11 and that was enough to hold off three late points from Liatroim’s star

player Pearse Óg McCrickard who finished the day with 11 points, seven of which came from frees.

Overall it is hard to argue that Liatroim deserved something from the game. The start put them on the back foot.

They managed to close the gap to a single point early in the second half, but the more experienced Connacht champions worked their way through that difficult patch and opened up a six points lead prior to Duggan’s goal.

So a disappointing end to a quite brilliant campaign for the Fontenoys that really entertained their supporters and also delivered county and provincial titles.

Liatroim: M McCartan; Ronán McCrickard, O Duggan, R O’Hare;

C Lynch, W McCartan, P Davidson; Ruairí McCrickard (0-1), C McCrickard; PJ McComiskey, PJ Davidson, P Óg McCrickard (capt, 0-11, 7f); T Murphy (0-2), J McAleenan, S Duggan (1-0).

Subs: D McCann for C Lynch (24),

M Lenaghan for Rónán McCrickard (43), B McKey for O Duggan (BS 46-50), A Laverty for PJ Comiskey

(56).

Tooreen: B Douglas; C Henry, M Morley, O Greally; J Boyle, S Coyne, D Kenny; S Kenny (0-5f), D Huane; L Lavin (0-2), F Boland (0-5), B Morley; S Regan (0-1), C Freeman (1-2), E Delaney (0-3).

Subs: D Harrison for S Regan (58), G Nolan for D Huane (60+2), S Lenehan for L Lavin (60+4).

Liatroim Fontenoys 1-14

Tooreen 1-18

ALL-IRELAND IHC SEMI-FINAL

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