Kilkenny IHL- James Stephens continue winning run in intermediate league decider

James Stephens continued their relentless march through the intermediate grade with a decisive nine-point victory over Danesfort in the Michael Lyng Motors Hyundai league final last Saturday afternoon.

Danesfort put up a decent showing in a first half where they only trailed by two points, but once the Village opened up there was no stopping them.

Ed Lauhoff rounded off a fine second half display by the city side as he netted a late goal in a game where he bagged a grand tally of 1-4.

With the likes of Sean Bergin, Eoin Guilfoyle and Tadhg O’Dwyer all chipping in with big displays, Eoin Larkin’s team had much too firepower for their opponents.

While Danesfort went full strength, the Village made a number of changes before the game with Daniel Power, Noah Manogue, Shane Donohue, Eoin Guilfoyle and Ed Lauhoff all coming in from the start and for the first 30 minutes at least it was a very competitive affair.

Eoin Guilfoyle and Colm Phelan exchanged the first two scores before efforts from Ed Lauhoff and Tadhg O’Dwyer ensured James Stephens led 0-3 to 0-1 after five minutes of play.

Danesfort then put on a spurt with points from Brian McDonald and Anthony Ireland Wall edging the ’Fort into a narrow advantage.

A rare mishap from Cian Kenny at the heart of the James Stephens defence allowed Brian McDonald to create a goal opportunity but the full-forward pulled his shot wide of the goal.

Kenny and Tadhg O’Dwyer added to the tally for the Village but they couldn’t quite shrug off Danesfort with points from Ireland Wall, Cathal Kearney and Robbie Walsh ensuring the outsiders led 0-7 to 0-5.

The rest of the half belonged to the Village however as they quickly reeled off five points without reply with Kenny, Sean Bergin, Ed Lauhoff and Oisin Bateman finding the range to push the winners into a commanding position.

Danesfort did conclude the half with points from Colm Phelan and Anthony Ireland Wall but it was still the Village that dictated matters as they led 0-11 to 0-9 at the half-time interval.

Any chance of a Danesfort comeback appeared to be wiped out when James Stephens quickly knocked over the first four points of the second half.

A pair of Eoin Guilfoyle efforts were squeezed between points by Ed Lauhoff and Willie Spencer and Danesfort quickly had it all to do as they trailed by six.

Two Cathal Kearney frees helped Danesfort keep a bit of parity as he cancelled out further Village efforts from Sean Bergin who was excellent throughout and Eoin Guilfoyle.

Danesfort needed a goal to make any real inroad on their opponents and while Daire O’Neill had a shot well saved by Daniel Power in the 40th minute, the James Stephens rearguard was watertight for the most part.

Danesfort’s struggles in attack became more pronounced the longer the half went on and they only scored one point from play between the resumption and the 58th minute and that was never going to be enough to overturn a James Stephens team who have been in rampant form so far this year.

In that same time, Eoin Guilfoyle continued to excel on placed balls while Lauhoff and Bergin maintained their high performance levels with two more scores from play.

Lauhoff still had time to get a goal late on and while Fionn Mahony did well off the bench for Danesfort with two points, this was all about James Stephens and in this form, they will be very difficult to stop in the next few weeks.

Teams and Scorers

James Stephens - Eoin Guilfoyle (0-8, 0-5 frees); Ed Lauhoff (1-4); Sean Bergin (0-4); Tadhg O’Dwyer (0-3 frees); Cian Kenny (0-2, frees); Oisin Bateman, Willie Spencer (0-1 each).

Danesfort - Anthony Ireland Wall (0-7, 0-4 frees); Cathal Kearney (0-3, 0-2 frees); Colm Phelan, Fionn Mahony (0-2 each); Brian McDonald, Robbie Walsh, Daire O’Neill (0-1 each).

James Stephens - Daniel Power; Luke Murphy, Noah Manogue, Ben Lawlor; Shane Donohue, Cian Kenny, Sean Bergin; Oisin Bateman, Jamie O’Keeffe; Niall Mullins, Eoin Guilfoyle, Sean Deely; Ed Lauhoff, Tadhg O’Dwyer, Stephen Manogue.

Subs: Willie Spencer for O’Keeffe, 27 mins; Ruairi Harrison for O’Dwyer, h/t; Sam McEvoy for Bateman, 44 mins; Eoin Deely for Kenny, 56 mins.

Danesfort - Paddy Hogan; Darren Booth, Diarmaid Phelan, Adam Byrne; Des Dunne, Paul Murphy, Daire O’Neill; Cathal Kearney, Cathal O’Neill; Dan Dowling, Colm Phelan, Sam Hayes; Anthony Ireland Wall, Brian McDonald, Robbie Walsh.

Subs: Fionn Mahony for Walsh, 50 mins; Padraic Mullen for C Phelan, 50 mins; Aidan Cowley for Dowling, 54 mins; Darragh Coverdale for McDonald, 54 mins.

Referee - Eoin Hayes (Thomastown).