Limerick 1-26 Dublin 0-17
Gaelic Grounds, Limerick
Pat Gilroy’s Senior hurlers suffered another heavy defeat tonight in the Gaelic Grounds, with Limerick now three for three and on course for promotion to the top flight.
It was Aaron Gillane again, along with Tom Morrissey and David Reidy who were clinical throughout as the Shannonsiders made light work of the Dublin unit to stay top of Division 1B.
Morrissey and Reidy got Limerick up and running with two scores each and were sitting at 0-06 to 0-04 on 16 minutes. Cian Boland, Fergal Whitely and Danny Sutcliffe chalked Dublin’s early scores but Limerick just couldn’t be shaken and Gillane, Geared Hegarty and Diarmuid Byrne pushed the lead to 0-09 to 0-05, with a Donal Burke free the only concession for Dublin.
And if things couldn’t have gotten worse for Dublin in the first half, Alan Nolan was deemed to have fouled Barry Murphy after some link up play with Seamus Flanagan, to give the hosts a penalty in the 23rd minute. Gillane, who finished tonight on 1-09, cleanly despatched the shot to raise the green flag.
At the break, Gillane had added another 0-04 for Limerick, while all Dublin could muster were two scores, from Danny Sutcliffe and Donal Burke.
Limerick continued in the same vein following the break. Despite a Burke converted free for Dublin, Flanagan got up and running early with two scores while Gillane continued adding to his tally.
Within 10 minutes of the restart Limerick had stretched the lead out by 1-18 to 0-08 and Dublin looked in serious trouble. Danny Sutcliffe, Donal Burke and Conal Keaney scores attempted to build some blue momentum, but Byrnes, Morrissey and Pat Ryan ensured Limerick would stay well in control.
With five minutes of normal time to play David Reidy could have completely destroyed Dublin’s day but Alan Nolan made amends for the first half penalty by stopping his shot. But that didn’t stop Reidy, Morrissey and Barry O’Connell raising more white flags to give Limerick a comfortable victory and sets them up for a massive showdown with Galway in Salthill on march 4th.
For Dublin, they have to face the tribesmen next weekend in Parnell Park, and will need to dig deep to get their season back on track.
Scorers For Limerick:
Aaron Gillane 1-09 (1 pen, 7f)
Tom Morrissey 0-04
David Reidy 0-04 (3f)
Diarmuid Byrnes 0-03 (1f)
Gearoidh Hegarty 0-02
Seamus Flanagan 0-02
Pat Ryan 0-01
Barry O’Connell 0-01
Scorers For Dublin:
Donal Burke (0-6, 6f)
Danny Sutcliffe (0-5)
Conal Keaney (0-2)
Eoghan O’Donnell (0-1)
Fiontán McGibb (0-1)
Fergal Whitely (0-1)
Cian Boland (0-1)
Limerick:
Nicky Quaid
Sean Finn
Seamus Hickey
Richie English
Diarmuid Byrnes
Declan Hannon
Dan Morrissey
Paul Browne
Cian Lynch
Gearoidh Hegarty
Tom Morrissey
David Reidy
Aaron Gillane
Seamus Flanagan
Barry Murphy.
Subs:
Tom Condon for English (HT)
Pat Ryan for Gillane (47)
Oisin O’Reilly for Murphy (53)
Barry O’Connell for Hegarty (56)
Dublin:
Alan Nolan
Paddy Smyth
Bill O’Carroll
Eoghan O’Donnell
Shane Barrett
Chris Crummey
Tomas Connolly
Cian McBride
Niall McMorrow
Fiontán McGibb
Fergal Whitely
Danny Sutcliffe
Conal Keaney
Cian Boland
Donal Burke
Subs:
Darren Kelly for O’Carroll (HT),
Ronan O’hAodha for McMorrow (HT)
Liam Rushe for Boland (HT)
James Madden for Connolly (69)