St.Mary's secure victory on return to senior hurling ranks

St.Mary's .............................. 0.14

Ballingarry ..........................  0.11

St.Mary's marked their long awaited return to the senior hurling ranks with  a crucial victory against Ballingarry in an entertaining Seamus O'Riain  group game on Sunday evening.

The  three point victory  will give the  newly promoted club  a massive confidence boost at the start of  their senior campaign.

It was a hugely important win for St.Mary's in Cashel  when they finished the stronger of the two teams  to secure a well deserved victory.

There was just two points between the teams with eight minutes left in the contest  but St.Mary's  powerful finish  saw them over the line.

Sean Kennedy, converting his fifth free of the second half , and his brother county star Seamus Kennedy pushed the Clonmel side four clear  with two minutes left on the clock.

Ballingarry,  who had been restricted to just three points in the second half up to that point , had to go for goal  but when they carved open an excellent opportunity   St.Mary's keeper  Shane O Neill pulled off a great save to deny Adrian Cleere.

The impressive Ian Ivors managed to reduce the deficit  to three points with a score  with a minute remaining but  the hard working Eric Walsh pushed it back out to four again in injury time.

Dylan  Walsh, who had caused the St.Mary's defence  major problems in the first half,  converted his  third free of the game in injury time, but it was not enough and St.Mary's ran out winners by a  three point margin.

St Mary's got off to the best possible start on their return to the senior ranks  scoring three points in the opening four minutes of the game with scores from Emmet Ryan,Sean Kennedy and Seamus Kennedy  all from play.

It was just the start St. Mary's needed but  Ballingarry,  with Ger Fennelly and Cillian Tuohy exerting a grip on midfield, stormed back into the game with the  teams finishing the first half six points apiece.

The St.Mary's  defence   put in a powerful performance in the second half, with Joe Gunne,RichieGunne, Kyle Peters, Liam Ryan,Sammy Peters  and  Ross Peters  putting in a massive effort to restict Ballingarry who only scored three from play inthe second half, two of those coming from substitute Philip Ivors.

St.Mary's however did waste too many chances in the second half in front of the Ballingarry goal and were it not for Shane O Neill on their goal who kept out AdrianCleere's well struck shot  with  two minutes left the Clonmel side could have been made to pay for that inaccuracy.