Adare retain senior status in Limerick hurling championship as South Liberties face drop

“RELIEVED to stay up. We came into form too late but at least it gives us a positive end to the season.”

After opening their senior hurling campaign with three defeats on the trot, Adare manager Louis Mulqueen was welcoming the turn in his side's fortunes as they strolled to a 2-26 to 1-12 victory over South Liberties in their crucial final Group Two outing of the Bon Secours Limerick senior hurling championship in Fedamore on Sunday.

In what turned out to be a relegation head-to-head, Adare cemented their status in the top grade with a runaway second-half performance in which they outscored their opponents by 1-15 to 0-5.

A fighting draw against Kildimo-Pallaskenry after a narrow defeat to table-toppers Ballybrown raised South Liberties' hopes of avoiding the drop but, when push came to shove, they just lacked the depth of quality of their opponents.

In the key one-on-ones over the hour, Adare's Ronan Connolly made Barry Nash work for everything he produced to keep his side in contact before the break but, down at the other end of the field, there was nobody in the green and yellow stripes able to contain the imprint Limerick skipper Declan Hannon left on the game.

Liberties' best hopes lay in keeping the play tight, using Anthony Nash's puckouts and clearances to create the spaces off the quick turnaround and stretching the opposing defence with the running game.

It worked up to a point for them before the break, but all their efforts into building up a lead were wasted on shooting 11n wides during the opening half-hour and, even when they got a goal to level the game coming up to the interval, they were zapped by an immediate Adare reply that left them trailing for the rest of the game.

Both sides got down to work early as Ben Crompton replied with a point to David O'Mahony's opener inside a minute before Declan Hannon's pointed free restored Adare's lead.

Scoring slowed down after that as shots drifted wide at both ends. Recovering their accuracy quicker, a Hannon pointed free and, after John Fitzgibbon's goal chance was blocked, Brendan O'Connor pushed the gap out to three before Barry Nash converted a free and a '65' on the quarter mark.

The sides were level after a Fitzgibbon pointed free was met by one each from Anthony and Barry Nash, but the Maiguesiders were now bearing down on the pressure points in Liberties' defence for Ronan Connolly, O'Connor and Hannon's pointed free to put Adare back in control.

However, just as they looked like enforcing their dominance, a misdirected clearance at the back was intercepted by John Hickey who fed Brendan McSweeney for the equalising goal.

After an exchange of points between Mike Mackey and Ben O'Donoghue. Adare stretched their legs again as Liberties' wide count mounted. Seán Connolly goaled the rebound from Anthony Nash's save off Sam Hickey and O'Connor pointed a pair before Barry Nash's free narrowed Adare's lead to 1-11 to 1-7 at the break.

Hannon's quick points from play and a free got Adare moving on the restart and, after Ryan replied, they slotted into gear and reeled off the scores from Connolly, a Hannon free, followed by O'Connor again, Mackey and Fitzgibbon to move 10 points to the good within ten minutes.

Nash struck twice in reply to break up the onslaught, his free answered by Mackey and his point from play met again by Mackey soloing through the challenges to whack home despite Anthony Nash's outstretched hurley.

After David Garry got his name on the scoresheet, that was the end of Liberties' resistance and, freed from any worries of defeat, Adare let it rip in the closing minutes. Shane Gleeson pointed as did Hannon from a free and from play and the scores were followed by a pair of Shane Heffernan points, O'Mahony and Hannon rounded off their onslaught on the posts before Barry Nash's free ended the scoring.

SCORERS: ADARE: Declan Hannon 0-9 (6 frees), Mike Mackey 1-3, Seán Connolly1-2, Brendan O'Connor 0-4, David O'Mahony, John Fitzgibbon (2 frees), Shane Heffernan 0-2 each, Ronan Connolly, Shane Gleeson 0-1 each; SOUTH LIBERTIES: Barry Nash 0-7 (5 frees, 1 '65'), Brendan McSweeney 1-0, Ben Crompton, Anthony Nash (free), Ben O'Donoghue, Tom Ryan, David Garry 0-1 each.

ADARE: PJ Hall. John McSweeney, Mike Keane, Joe Sweeney; Jody Hannon, Ronan Connolly, Darragh Gleeson; John Fitzgibbon, Wayne McNamara; Brendan O'Connor, Sam Hickey, David O'Mahony; Declan Hannon, Seán Connolly, Mike Mackey. SUBS: Shane Gleeson for Brendan O'Connor (injured, 43 minutes), James Gahan for Wayne McNamara (48 minutes), Shane Heffernan for Seán Connolly (50 minutes), Eoghan Costelloe for Darragh Gleeson (58 minutes).

SOUTH LIBERTIES: Anthony Nash; Mike O'Brien, Eoin Quilty, Alex Keys; Ben O'Donoghue, Owen Dunne, David Garry; Paddy O'Donnell, Ken Byrnes; Shane Brosnahan, Barry Nash, John Hickey; Ben Crompton, Brendan McSweeney, Tom Ryan. SUBS: Enda Meaney for Mike O'Brien (28 minutes), Shane Kilcoyne for Owen Dunne (half-time), Brian Garry for Paddy O'Donnell (33 minutes),Joe Hegarty for Tom Ryan (52 minutes), Tony Carroll for Eoin Quilty (56 minutes).

REFEREE: Éamonn Stapleton (Doon).