Kildalkey cruise to victory in one-sided contest

The outcome never looked in doubt as Nick Fitzgerald's side comfortably dispose of St Peter's

Kildalkey 6-31

St Peter’s 2-9

Kildalkey provided the Meath SHC with yet another massacre by comfortably tearing apart St Peter’s in Trim on Friday evening. The hurling community can add this contest to the growing pile of evidence for the widely held belief that the format of the current SHC is simply not fit for purpose.

Leaving aside the disparity between the two sides, Kildalkey will be quite pleased by the way they are progressing in this championship. The effortless nature in which the county champions moved the sliotar around St Loman’s Park was fairly spectacular.

Nick Fitzgerald’s men were ruthless from the off and had built up a tally of 3-10 inside the first quarter, all the while restricting St Peter’s to a single point.

The chemistry between the Kildalkey front six was incredible and in particular, Brian O’Halloran and Nicky Potterton were once again flawless throughout the 60 minutes.

Wing-back Alan Watters kicked off proceedings with a well-taken score and within three minutes, Kildalkey had a 0-4 to no score lead courtesy of Potterton and two points from O’Halloran, one of which was secured from a very tight angle.

Sean Quigley opened St Peters’ account but Kilakdey responded exceptionally well and took complete control of the contest. Within a matter of minutes, two separate breakdowns of communication in the St Peter’s puck-out led to the opening two goals. O’Halloran was first to raise the green flag before Luke Rikard assisted Potterton for the second. This gave Kildalkey a 10-point advantage after only seven minutes.

Having already scored 2-1 without reply, Kildalkey rattled off another 1-9 before the men in black and amber managed to register another score. The full forward line of Patrick Barnwell, Potterton and Conor Fitzgerald accounted for 1-4 of these scores with Potterton producing a fantastic individual net finder. After 20 minutes of play, there were 22 points between the two teams.

The last 10 minutes of the half saw Kildalkey slightly ease off the accelerator and St Peter’s managed to hold their own thanks to a long-range score from Conor Murphy and two Quigley frees. Kildalkey kept themselves ticking over in this period with the highlight being Brin Kelly’s point from a mile out. At half-time, Kildalkey held a commanding lead of 3-17 to 0-4.

Potterton and Quigley traded frees early on in the second-half before a Quigley shot from distance was fumbled by Caemerhon Smith and the sliotar landed into the back of the net. After St Peter’s had gotten their first goal against the run of play, normal service resumed and Kildalkey rattled off 0-7 consecutively with O’Halloran and Potterton adding 0-3 and 0-2 to their respective individual tallys.

Conor Murphy pulled one back for St Peter’s before Niall McNally lit up St Loman’s park by scoring 1-2 inside two minutes. McNally’s midfield partner, Evan Fitzgerald followed suit when he also racked up 1-2 inside the final five minutes. To their credit St Peter’s battled on in the closing stages and were rewarded with a late goal courtesy of Murphy.

Kildalkey had wrapped this contest up very early on in the bright daylight and darkness had well and truly fallen when Bernard Heaney finally called a halt to this extremely one-sided affair.

Kildalkey – Caemerhon Smyth; David Conneely, Brin Kelly (0-1), Brendan McKeon; David Harmon (0-2), Martin Healy, Patrick Conneely; Evan Fitzgerald (1-4), Niall McNally (1-2); Luke Rickard (0-3), Brian O’Halloran (1-6), Gary Kelly (0-1); Patrick Barnwell (0-7), Nicky Potterton (2-4 three frees), Conor Fitzgerald (1-1). Subs – Patrick Potterton for Harmon HT.

St Peter’s – Liam Davis; Fergal Chawe (0-1), Adam O’Connor Evan McCrudden; Alan Watters, Diarmuid Delaney, Ger Murphy; Peter Connelly, Daire Rohan (0-1); Conor Murphy (1-2), Sean Quigley (1-4 four frees), Cian Rohan; Simon Cunningham, Niall Smyth, Liam Callanan(0-1). Subs – Andrew McWeeney for G Murphy 4 mins, Conor Deering for Connelly 33m, John Mitchell for N Smyth, Shane McCormack for O’Connor both 41m, Luke Loftus for Cunningham 53m.

Referee – Bernard Heaney