Bruff secure precious win over South Liberties in Limerick premier intermediate hurling championship

“RELIEF," breathed manager Paddy O'Leary on Thursday evening as his Bruff premier intermediate hurlers eased their relegation pressures with a comprehensive 1-22 to 1-13 victory over South Liberties in their fifth qualifying round clash in Clarina.

“We finally found some form when we needed it and the lads really went the distance with a great second half performance,” O'Leary added.

Coming up to the break, however, the prospects of a Bruff victory of any sort were, at best, in the balance. Not only had the Stars fallen behind to Liberties' second quarter revival but their skipper and prime inspiration, county star Séan Finn, had limped off with a strained hamstring and the fruits of their early pressure looked to be fading away.

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However, a goal from nowhere right on the stroke of half-time to vault them into a lead that Bruff never subsequently lost as they turned on a confidence not seen all season to close off the result long before the game had ended.

Starting out from the same precarious position as that of their opponents, South Liberties dominated possession early on and, for the first time in their season's campaign, were spreading the finishing duties across their entire forward unit.

Despite a seventh-minute goal, however, wayward shooting stopped them from getting full value from their efforts until they started to draw the fouls in the run-up to the break for the metronomic Ken Byrnes to punish.

However, when their hard-won lead was overtaken by the Bruff goal, they just couldn't find the inspiration to scale the mountain again.

Although Barry Nash opened the scoring straight from the throw-in, Liberties failed to get the shot in from their next few attacks while Bruff drew a pair of frees for Owen Meaney to convert .

Meaney then doubled the lead with a long strike from play. However, that was almost immediately overtaken when Byrnes's rasper from out right was blocked by Eric Finn only for Darragh Godfey to race in and bury the rebound.

Charlie Cronin then equalised for the Stars as did Meaney's free after Brian Garry's reply before Byrnes and Seán Holland had Liberties ahead by two by the quarter-hour.

However, Bruff, after seeing a goal disallowed for a square ball, rattled off points from Josh Keating's free, from Meaney and Keating from play to regain their advantage.

However, 'Souths' his back as Byrnes sent over a pair of pointed frees befire then regaining the lead by converting another after Keating's reply.

Liberties once again responded to Paul Browne's equaliser by sending another two points between the posts going into added time.

It was looking even bleaker for Bruff when Finn then went off injured. However, finding inspiration when it was sorely needed, Keating pounced on the sliotar breaking off a long free and fired to the net on the turn for a lead of 1-10 to 1-9 just before the half-time whistle blew.

Although Meaney's point was cancelled out by Byrnes's pointed free as the second half opened, Bruff had found their focus while Liberties lost their range.

Gavin Bracken's score, followed by a pair of Meaney frees opened up the first lead of substance of the game. Byrnes then broke the sequence with another free but, when Meaney's pointed free and Browne score stretched the gap to five points by the three-quarter mark, the momentum was swinging the Stars' way.

Two Meaney pointed frees from deep inside his own half made Liberties' task even harder and, despite the stopwatch ticking inexorably towards the hour, Bruff were in no mood to lift the foot off the pedal.

A pair of Keating points and another point from Bracken pushed the gap out to double figures before Byrnes broke the sequence with Liberties only score from play in the second half.

The pressure eased only after Browne's reply was cancelled out by Eoghan Godfrey's free. Liberties then spent the five added minutes searching for a consolation goal only to see the opposing defence block a pair of 20 metre frees as well as a pull on a ball dropping from a '65' before the Timmy McGrath's whistle sounded for the last time.

SCORERS: BRUFF: Owen Meaney 0-11 (8 frees), Josh Keating 1-5 (0-1 free), Paul Browne 0-3, Gavin Bracken 0-2, Charlie Cronin 0-1; South Liberties: Ken Byrnes 0-8 (6 frees), Darragh Godfrey 1-0, Barry Nash 0-2 (1 free), Brian Garry, Seán Holland, Eoghan Godfrey (free) 0-1 each.

BRUFF: Eric Finn; Patrick Finn, Seán Casey, Colm O'Loughlin; Paul O'Riordan, Seán Finn, Kevin Bonner; Owen Meaney, Charlie Cronin; Barry Callinan, Paul Browne, Darragh Butler; Josh Keating, Bobby O'Brien, Danny O'Leary. SUBS: Gavin Bracked for Seán Finn (injured, 29 minutes), Mikey O'Riordan for Danny O'Leary (52 minutes), Jack Fitzgerald for Charlie Cronon (55 minutes), Evan Daly for Bobby O'Brien (58 minutes).

SOUTH LIBERTIES: Ben Garry; Brendan Aherne, Eoin Quilty, Ben O'donoghue; Shane Kilcoyne, Eoghan Godfrey, David Garry; Barry Nash, John Hickey; Seán Holland, Darragh Godfrey, Shane Brosnahan; Brendan McSweeney, Brian Garry, Ken Byrnes. SUBS: Alex Keys for David Garry (injured, 46 minutes), Ben Compton for Brendan McSweeney (48 minutes), Joe Hegarty for Seán Holland (56 minutes).

REFEREE: Timmy McGrath (Oola).