Kilkenny IHC- O’Neill double helps ’Shock into last four

When these sides met in Windgap in the league just over a month ago, Carrickshock emerged the right side of a 13 point drubbing, helped in no small way by a six goal fest.

But the Piltown meeting on Saturday last being a Championship Quarter-Final, nobody was reading too much into that league form.

The opening exchanges were open and from end to end, leading us to mistakenly believe that this could turn into a scoring fest.

Four points inside the first five minutes, all from play, were evenly shared.

Carrickshock midfielder Brian Donavan struck over a beauty on 13 minutes, after some fine build up from Jamie Power and John Cahill, to see them nudge ahead 0-6 to 0-3.

Dunnamaggin did briefly find their scoring range, first through sharpshooter Eoghan Kearney, before Andy Hickey showed that he could match the Shocks midfield .

Another spell of defensive domination followed before what was perhaps the crucial score of the game.

Carrickshock’s Kevin Farrell won possession on the 45 and drew a couple of defenders, leaving Eoghan O’Neill in a bit space.

Farrell’s pass found O’Neill and he only had goal on his mind, finishing deftly from a tight angle.

In fairness the consistent Ray Cody responded quickly to keep it to a one score game.

A minute later Kevin Farrell was provider again, producing one of his now trademark catches from the clouds, before cleverly finding John Power in space.

He fed Brian Donavan who repeated his trick of 10 minutes earlier.

Shortly after Jake O’ Dwyer created a sniff of a goal chance but opted instead to take his point.

Like the first half, points were evenly shared early on in the second period, so that on 40 minutes the score was 1-10 to 0-8.

Darragh Brennan, who was troubling the Dunna defence throughout, now really started to make it count.

He struck over a fine point after one of his mazy runs.

He was about to repeat it a minute later before he was hauled down and Eoghan O’Neill converted the free.

The gap was now seven, and the next ten minutes saw more disappointment for Dunnamaggin.

Eight points down with eight minutes left they started to go for broke and it looked like Peter Kenneally had given them a lifeline only for Carrickshock goalkeeper Dan Blanchfield to react superbly and put it out for a 65.

Denis Walsh had now taken over free taking duties and he duly slotted over.

While still holding a comfortable lead, it appeared that Carrickshock had lost their shape somewhat.

Maybe route one was the answer: a mighty clearance from Dan Blanchfield reached the Dunnamaggin square, the ball broke and in an instant Eoghan O’Neill had gathered and finished it off and with it finished off the contest.

In the last minute of normal time, Dunnamaggin did finally raise a green flag when Michael Cody came up from centre back to drive an absolute piledriver of a 21 yard free to the net.

It made no material difference to the outcome though as Carrickshock claimed an eight point victory.

Teams & Scorers

Carrickshock- Eoghan O Neill 2-6 (five Frees), Jake O Dwyer 0-2, Michael Rice 0-2, Darragh Brennan 0-2, Brian Donavan 0-2, Jamie Power 0-1

Dunnamaggin- Eoghan Kearney 0-3 (two Frees), Michael Cody 1-0 (Free), Ray Cody 0-2, Joe Fitzpatrick 0-1, Kieran Bergin 0-1, Andy Hickey 0-1, Denis Walsh 0-1 (65), Peter Kenneally 0-1

Carrickshock- Dan Blanchfield, Padraig Lennon , Niall Tennyson , James Grace, Sean Moore, John Power (Stoneyford), John Cahill , Michael Rice, Brian Donavan, Eoin Crowley, Jake O Dwyer, Eoghan O Neill, Darragh Brennan , Jamie Power, Kevin Farrell.

Subs: Aaron Roche, Michael Murphy, John Power (Lismatigue).

Dunnamaggin- Seaghain O Neill, Ian Walsh, Harry Walsh, Shaun O Keeffe, Jack Brett, Michael Cody, Darragh O Keeffe, Andy Hickey , Ray Cody, Darren Fitzpatrick, Peter Kenneally, Eoghan Kearney , Denis Walsh, Kieran Bergin, Joe Fitzpatrick.

Subs: Conor Hoban, Ruaidhrí Holden, Colin Fitzpatrick, Jimmy O’Neill.

Referee- Michael O’Sullivan