Wicklow vs Kilkenny Minor

 Wicklow 1-10

Kilkenny 0-2

SETU Carlow 

Eoin Horkan 

This young Wicklos side produced some scintillating  football from start to finish to bring the minor plate back to the Garden county.

It was  a dream start for Wicklow’s  captain Darragh Harper, he managed to put his side two points up early in this tie. The first a free from close range after an early breach from the opposition before he added a second from play minutes later.

Under the lights in Carlow the Cats managed to narrow the gap to the minimum when centre forward Aaron McCormack who finally managed to break through after three minutes of strong Wicklow defending.

Just before the quarter hour mark the lead was back to two when Rhys Behan drove down the wing before firing over from a narrow angle. Both sides were finding it very difficult to break down each other's defences for  the next seven minutes. This was until Roundwood’s Zach Kavanagh powered into the game. He first set up Harper to add another to his account for the night.Then Kavanagh himself  raised two white flags in quick succession from long range. This gave his side a five point lead going in at the break.

Once tie resumed it was KilKenny who struck first with a free from the boot of Ryan Lawlor.Within minutes this was cancelled out when corner back Ronan O Brien found himself in front of the goal to split the posts.

The next ten minutes turned into a stale mate as both back lines seemed to be getting the better of their opponents .This was until the aforementioned Kavanagh won a ball from the kick out before firing over his third of the night.

This score along with emptying the bench paved the way for Wicklow to tag on another couple of scores before the final whistle .

The first of this patch was from midfielder Emmet Harney, before substitute Aaaon Nolan made an immediate impact slotting over from the twenty-one.

It was clear at this point that Wicklow would be bringing the plate back home, just to ensure victory Harper found himself in the right place to bury a goal just before the final whistle.

Wicklow;Eoin Davis;Ronan O’Brien(0-1),Ruairí Fleming,Kalem Buckley;Noah Tyrell,Ben O’Leary,Rhys Behan(0-1);Emmet Harney(0-1),Will O’Connor;Zach Kavanagh (0-3),Kayden McMahon,Conor Cooney;Darragh Haper (1-3 1f),David McCormack,Daniel Connolly.

Subs Used:Aaron Nolan(0-1) for Kayden McMahon,Callum Farrell for David McCormack,Alex McKenna for Kalem Buckley,Tadhg Reardon for Daniel Connolly,Thomas Nolan for Eoin Davis,Aaron Seagrave for Rhys Behan,Finn Walsh for Conor Cooney.

Kilkenny:Andrew Donohue;Paddy McCarthy,Padraig Kavanagh,Cian Murphy;Cian Dalton,David Phelan,Rory Buckley;Kalem Buggy,Andrew Dillon;Jamie Dowling,Aaron McCormack(0-1),Eoin Maher;Hugh Beirne,Ryan Lawlor(0-1f),Finn Gillespie.

Subs Used:Jack O’Driscoll,Sean O’Driscoll,Dara Sweetman,Oisin Maher,Joseph Brennan,Luke Kealy, Joaquim Nolan.

Referee