St Lachtain's reflect on Leinster glory before clash with Easkey

In a game that went right to the wire, it was St Lachtain’s faces that were smiling as they brought the Leinster junior hurling title to Freshford.

Manager Steven Farrell was pleased at how the lads dug out the one point victory.

“It’s brilliant to win a Leinster title and bring it back to the parish.

“It’s unbelievable and credit to the lads as it was a real dogfight with Castletown Liam Mellows giving us a huge fright right till the end but we are delighted to get over the line.

“It was a very hard game to call from a neutral perspective and it was a brilliant watch even if it wasn’t for us on the line,” he said.

“It was a great game of hurling with a lot of good and bad and it gives us something to work on for next week going down to Ballinasloe as Leinster Finals are all about getting over the line and thankfully we did that.”

After the earlier three Leinster wins which came relatively comfortable to the Kilkenny side, this was a game that could have went either way.

“It was probably our biggest test since the county final and that’s no disrespect to any other team that we met.

“We always knew it was going to be a huge battle and conditions have changed and they are a lot tougher since we won our county final and every week pitches are getting heavier so it’s just about adapting and dealing with it,” the games promotional officer added.

Freshford won’t have much time to celebrate with the All-Ireland semi-final against Easkey (Sligo) down for decision this Sunday where they may have to do without Brian Kennedy (Honeymoon) and injury doubts hang over Paddy Killeen and James Maher.

“We’ll enjoy this one as it’s not often you win a Leinster title and we’ll stay together as a team and keep it as quiet as we can and get back to training on the field and look forward to getting on the bus to Galway.”

Another main talking point was moving the game to Carlow after storm damage ruled out UPMC Nowlan Park and although Freshford was offered up as a alternative, it was ruled out.

“The venue was all up in the air and on Friday morning we thought we had a home venue and then it was all up in the air after the storm on Saturday morning.

“We tried pitches including our own in Freshford which was available but we were told it wasn’t allowed.

“These things happen and it’s a great setup here in Carlow with the pitch in great condition so we couldn’t knock that and it was the same for everyone so we just had to deal with it.”

St Lachtain’s captain and full back Criomhthann Bergin was also overjoyed as led his side to a significant success.

“It’s something you always dream of as a young lad when you pick up a hurl and I can’t put it into words to be honest. These are the days you play the game for.

“It was a very tough game and we knew it was going to be exactly that.

“Castletown are a dual club who are the senior football champions in Wexford so we knew they were going to be fit and physical which they were and the shots were coming in every which way and we definitely felt it today as we really knew we were in a match.

“When they got their second goal, it looked like it was really tightening up on us and it looked like it was slipping away but we have great faith in the boys up front and we see in training what they can do and the biggest thing was to get the ball into them and it worked out.”

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