St Brigids Junior Hurlers continued their rich vain of form as they deservedly won this hard-hitting championship encounter against undefeated table toppers Kilmacud Crokes.  St Brigids deserved to win this match although their domination was not reflected on the scoreboard. St Brigids dominated for long periods of the game but could not make it count where it mattered. The game was played with real championship vigour with tackles flying in everywhere but the referee done a great job to control some incidents that could have easily boiled over. St Brigids knew that they would have to win this game if they were to compete for honours at the end of the year.

Crokes won the toss and decided to play with the aid of a strong breeze, which should have enabled them to build up a good lead by half time. This didn?t happen as St Brigids tight marking defence kept Crokes scoreless in the first half. St Brigids showed great determination and never let Crokes settle on the ball. The only score in the first half came from St Brigids wing forward David Smyth who cemented his man of the match performance with a well-taken point from the left wing after beating 2 Crokes players? jinking left and right to point. St Brigids were definitely the happier of the two sides at the break but they knew that they would have to up the tempo to win the match. St Brigids young rear guard were coping very well with the more experienced Kilmacud forwards who were getting frustrated with the lack of ball. Captain David Brookes and John Dunning were leading by example in defence giving St Brigids a strong foundation to launch attacks from.

St Brigids got a dream start to the second half when Stephen Dunning capitalised on a defensive mistake in the Kilmacud defence to rifle the ball to the Crokes net. St Brigids notched up two further points with Ciaran Plunkett pointing from the right wing after some great interchanging play between Seamus Lynam and Willa Corbett. Half forwards Seamus Lynam & David Smyth was causing major problems for the Kilmacud defence with their strong running and great defensive hassling. Seamus Lynam registering the point of the game when pointing from distance off his left. Mickey Birmingham found Lynam with a well-placed puck out and Lynam turned his marker and marched through the Kilmacud defence to lengthen the St Brigids lead. Kilmacud were finding it hard to build any platform for an attack due to the great defensive play from the entire St Brigids team right up to the full forward line.

Kilmacud Crokes made several position changes at this stage and these changes seemed to have an immediate effect. Crokes soon registered their first score of the match. Corner forward Frank Carter knocking over a point from an acute angle on the left wing. Crokes added two further points to leave three points between the sides with ten minutes remaining. Crokes were on the up and St Brigids needed to stem the flow of the Crokes fight back.  St Brigids moved Plunkett onto the edge of the square and this change had an immediate effect when Plunkett beautifully doubled on the ball to give Crokes keeper Noel Furlong no chance. Brigids held Crokes scoreless for the remaining minutes to put an end to their unbeaten run.

St Brigids: Mickey Birmingham, JD Mulcahy, Colm O Brien, David Brooks, Willa Corbett, John Dunning, Brian Mulcahy, Ali Waters, Vinny Bruen, David Smith, Seamus Lynam, Ciaran Plunkett, Brenden Farrell, Paul Sheedy, Brian Hanley

Scorers: Ciaran Plunkett 1-1, Stephen Duinning 1-0, Seamus Lynam 0-1, and David Smith 0-1

Subs Used: Keith O'Neill, Stephen Dunning, and Ciaran Byrne

Half Time: St Brigids 0-1 Kilmacud Crokes 0-0

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