Shamrocks keep under-21 hat-trick ambitions alive

Defending champions, Shamrocks from Ballyhale had to dig deep to come up with a winning effort but they found it and stayed on track for a possible hat-trick of title wins in the grade when downing Danesfort in the under-21 Roinn A hurling championship semi-final in John Locke Park today.

A goal from Martin Davis, who finished with 1-4 to his credit, in the 58th minute all but secured passed through for a repeat of last year’s final against O’Loughlin Gaels. The big showdown will be next weekend.

The Davis strike shot Shamrocks 1-16 to 0-13 clear. Danesfort, who defended manfully throughout and chased with all their might, pulled back a goal through Owen Brennan in ‘lost time’, but the game was gone on them at that stage.

Shamrocks opened backed by the strong wind blowing down the field towards the country end. On a bitterly cold day and in demanding underfoot conditions, they found progress difficult, especially against a determined ’Fort defence.

The winners didn’t look that well off when leading by 0-9 to 0-5 at the break. There was an exchange of points between James Mullally (D) and Liam Barron during the opening minutes of the new half.

Most of the way from there the gap was three or four points, until the big strike by Davis.

SCORERS: Shamrocks - Martin Davis (1-4); Eoin Cody (0-7); Adrian Mullen (0-3); Darragh Corcoran (0-2); Liam Barron, John Shortall  (0-1 each). Danesfort - James Mullally (0-9); Owen Brennan (1-0); Pauric Mullen, Daire O’Neill, Peter Donoghue, Ciaran Mullen (0-1 each).

For more on Kilkenny People sport read here.