Our u16 hurling team hosted Round Towers Clondalkin this evening on Bells pitch, which is becoming the spiritual home for the lads... With a couple of lads coming back from injuries we had the luxury of having an "almost" full panel to select from for this evenings game.

It was a great evening for hurling with the conditions perfect, we have not had the rub of green over the previous two rounds and the mentors have a strong belief in this panel and we knew that the previous results did not reflect how well the team and each of the lads have developed...

This afternoon we got the reward for our belief..... We got a real show of Focus, Discipline, Intensity and mostly skill from the lads...

We started very strongly and in the 1st Quarter we emposed ourselves on Clondalkin winning dirty ball, forcing turnovers and really driving at Clondalking with a mixture of short fast pacing and long passing hurling, playing against a slight wind it did impact on some of our point taking but we went in at the end of the 1st Quarter 1-3 to 0-0, it was a really strong 1st Quarter, Clondalkin got a bit more into the game and held us to 0-2 and returning with a score themselves. We went in at half time 1-5 to 0-1

2nd half we had the slight wind to our backs, and we pushed on.. but Clondalking answered our press with a great 3rd quarter and really put us under pressure with a serious of 65's and frees they kept the pressure on and reduced the margin to 5 points 1-8 to 1-3

It really was all to play for in the final quarter.. credit to the lads they knew what to do and there was very little direction from the mentors. We stormed into the last 15mins and we rattled in 0-7 t0 0-1 , we were very unlucky not to be ahead by more with Conor Colman being very unlucky on a number of occasions.. he pulled left, right, kicked... but it was one of those days when it did not go in...

Today was one of those days when it went well and the lads got the performance that we knew was there, from Adam, Rob Timmins ( who had an amazing game ) and John Meaney ( who mastered the skies ) and Conor Hanratty ( that tirelessly worked hard ) to upfront with the front 6 that were too hot to handle at times and they were supported by an ever improving half back line... Tadgh and Eoghan came on in the 2nd half to really add some additional threat to our forward line..

So well done to the lads on a great win, the game ended with a good win 1-15 to 0-4 ( & no injuries )

Next game will be N.Olaf in the final round of the group championship...