The 'Mines dig deep in extra time to claim Junior C North Hurling title at Kilruane's expense

North Junior C Hurling Championship Final

Silvermines 0-19

Kilruane MacDonaghs 1-13

Silvermines had more legs in extra time as they finally shook off a relentless Kilruane MacDonaghs team in last Saturday’s North Junior C Hurling Championship final in Toomevara.

Despite having the better of normal time for vast patches, Kilruane managed to hold onto the coattails of their opponents going into the final ten minutes, and the game was thrown on its head just two minutes from time when substitute Nathan Lynch goaled from a rebound to put Kilruane one point up and minutes away from a surprise win in the context of this game.

However, Silvermines didn’t panic and managed to find the equalising score a few minutes from time thanks to a well taken Sean Quinlan free under severe pressure, and in extra time, they looked the fitter and more rounded team once again to see out the win against a Kilruane team who left everything on the pitch, but just came up short in an exciting game.

Silvermines were deserving winners it must be said, as they were the better team most of the game barring the final ten minutes of the second half, with Brian Seymour the big threat for the men in blue all game.

Not long ago, Seymour was playing senior hurling for his club and his quality shone through all game, especially in the first half where he couldn’t be contained with five points from play coming in that time.

Despite that, Kilruane kept in touch with their opponents in the first half as the sides were deadlocked at 0-4 apiece at the 15-minute mark; three Seymour points and a Sean Quinlan free contributed for the Mines while Pat Williams, David O’Sullivan, Martin Grace, and Diarmuid Cahill were on target for MacDonaghs.

The game was really tit-for-tat in terms of the scoring but Silvermies were having the better of the chances but were guilty of wasting chances. They did take the lead by the 24th minute again though at 0-8 to 0-5 after a dominating period, but a superb sideline cut from Martin Grace along with a free from David Williams kept Kilruane in the shake-up.

The last action of the half fell to Brian Seymour though, who again found space to strike off that potent right side of his right beside the dugouts in Toomevara, floating over a beauty to give the Mines a 0-9 to 0-7 half-time lead.

Silvermines started the second half like a train and extended their lead to four thanks to efforts from Fionn Ryan Mulqueen and another Sean Quinlan free, but Kilruane found the next three scores in a brown up to the 40th minute with all of those coming from David O’Sullivan frees.

The eventual winners re-established their three-point advantage by the three-quarter mark with frees from Quinlan and a monster from distance by Brian Seymour and leading 0-14 to 0-11 with ten minutes to go, it looked like they would have enough to see this one out.

In fairness to Kilruane though, they never stopped battling and managed to find the lead late in the game, firstly with a Declan Barrett point from play in the 49th minute before a welltaken rebound from Nathan Lynch put them into the lead for the first time all game with just two minutes remaining.

SHell-shock was etched on the players' faces in Silvermines jerseys, and only for some very wayward shooting from Kilruane, they could have been beating in normal time, but they did manage to force the extra time and with more ammo on the bench, they dominated the two periods of ten minutes with Sean Quinlan pointing three times along with a rousing point from Cathal McGrath to clinch the title.

Silvermines: Cathal Sherlock; Mark Leamy, Tiernan Flynn, Cathal McGrath (0-1); Damien Egan, Eoin Seymour, Tj Timmons; Jack Corcoran, John Ryan; Brian Seymour (0-7, 0-2f), Aaron Mulqueen, John Madigan; Brian Leamy (0-1), Fionn Ryan Mulqueen (0-1), Sean Quinlan (0-9, 0-7f).

Subs used: Michael Ryan Prendiville for Madigan (42); Denis Ryan for J Ryan (52); Ger Boland for A Mulqueen (ET).

Kilruane MacDonaghs: Alan Quinlan; Arran Conroy, Fergus England, David Mooney; Sean Hayes, Shane Williams, Cormac Williams; Finnian Mannion, Diarmuid Cahill (0-1); Eoin O’Meara, Pat Williams (0-2), Martin Grace (0-4, 0-2f, 0-1 s-cut); David Williams (0-1f), Louis Kennedy, David O’Sullivan (0-4, 0-3f).

Subs used: Declan Barrett (0-1) for Mannion (26); Nathan Lynch (1-0) for D Williams (HT); Stephen Cleary for Conroy (51); Andrew Brennan for O’Meara (57); Arran Conroy for Mooney (ET); Finnian Mannion for Kennedy (ET).

Referee: Brendan Ryan (Ballina)