With our last league match back on July 26th it was a very rusty Towers 15 that took the field in a table topping tie against St Sylvester in Malahide on Sunday the 11th.
With a lack of games due to a number of walkovers Towers were always going to be up against it especially with Malahide enjoying home advantage and needing a win to keep their season on track.
Despite a numbers of injuries to players we still had a strong panel of 19 on duty which highlights the great progress made under Fergal McDonagh this year.
From the very start it was obvious that there was going to be very little between the teams with points been exchanged primarily from frees. Towers found themselves under pressure from long range frees dropping in the square all day and it was from one of these that Sylvesters got the first of their goals to put them in the lead. Not to be outdone Towers replied with a goal from a long distance free from Darren Gilligan to lead at half time by a point.
The second half saw a similar pattern of play with very little between the teams. Another Sylvesters goal saw them take the lead but 1-02 from Eoin Fitzgerald put Towers back in the driving seat. With time almost up and Towers leading by 2 points Sylvestesters won another free on the half way line. Again the sliothar was lobbed in and to the delight of the home crowd Sylversters were back in front with a well taken goal. Towers didn’t panic and the ball was worked up the field and a free won. Knowing that it was the last puck of the game and with so much at stake Martin Dolye didn’t let the pressure get to him and the white flag went up to tie the scores at 2-12 to 3-9.
While Towers got out of jail in the end, it was a match that we would have won comprehensively earlier on in the season. A lack of games and training came close to undoing all the effort put in the early part of the season. Despite this the team showed what it is capable of by getting a result. With three games to go and a big wake up call received ,the team can go on to win the league with a big effort at training over the next few weeks. There’s a good mix of experience and youth on the team and hopefully once promotion is achieved the team can concentrate on challenging for promotion again next year.
Team :John Delaney,Eoin FitzGerald,Connie Ryan,John Weafer,Niall Corless,Simon Nevin,Chris Kavanagh,Rory Keogh,Darren Gilligan,Ciaran Brennan,Martin Doyle,Eoin Hutchinson,Phiilly Caroll,Gabriel McQuillan,Jordan O’Neill,Patrick Daly,Kevin Connolly,Fergal Power & Conor Harte.
