Wins for Patrickswell and Mungret St Paul's in Thursday's Limerick SHC fixtures

PATRICKSWELL and Mungret St Paul's gave their hopes of reaching the knockout stages of the Bon Secours Limerick SHC knockout stages a huge boost with wins over Ahane and Adare respectively.

'The Well' earned a 2-16 to 2-13 victory over Ahane in what ended up being controversial circumstances. Confusion blighted the final stages with Ahane protesting that the score on the scoreboard was incorrect. 

The Castleconnell club questioned the electronic scoreboard on several occasions in the second half but their protests were ignored by referee Johnny Murphy.

The referee and the scoreboard had the final score as a 2-17 to 2-12 win for Patrickswell but this journalist and several others at the game had the score at 2-16 to 2-13. As did the official Limerick GAA stream of the fixture. It now appears that Ahane could object to the scoreline but not the result.

The game itself was brought to life by a second minute Jordan Higgins goal for Patrickswell. They were the better side in the first half with John Kirby and Cian Fitzgerald following up with points.

Ahane were totally reliant on Tom Morrissey frees in the opening half hour with the Limerick half forward landing five from six attempts.

Cian Lynch was outstanding for 'The Well' and he, Aaron Gillane, Diarmaid Byrnes and Mark Carmody also helped themselves to a point each to give them a 1-7 to 0-5 half time advantage.

Ahane made a solid start to the second half but a sensational team goal involving John Flynn, Kevin O'Brien and Lynch ended with Aaron Gillane firing into the net. That put them into a 2-8 to 0-7 lead but Ahane were far from done.

A Tom Morrissey goal on 48 minutes put two points between the sides and a goal from Paddy Morrissey late cut Patrickswell's margin of lead to just one.

However, O'Brien and Gillane scores ensured that Patrickswell earned a second victory of the championship.

Elsewhere, Mungret St Paul's moved onto five points in Group 2 of the Limerick SHC after a 1-23 to 2-17 win over Adare in Askeaton.The city side held a 1-11 to 0-9 advantage with Niall Mulcahy getting the goal for Mungret.

Declan Hannon returned from injury Adare outfit that led by 0-4 to 0-1 after eight minutes. All six Mungret starting forwards managed to get on the scoresheet but Adare drew level seven minutes of the second half by virtue of a Sam Hickey goal.

Mungret led 1-19 to 1-16 after 54 mins when Declan Hannon got goal to level it. Mungret outscored them 0-4 to 0-1 after that with points from Shane Barry (who got 4 from play altogether), Brian O'Meara, Barry Duff and a Liam Lynch free. John Fitzgibbon top scored for Adare

The win maintains there unbeaten start to the season and pushes them closer to a place in the quarter-final and a spot at the top table in the 2024 championship.