South Liberties boost survival hopes with precious Limerick Premier intermediate hurling win over Croagh-Kilfinny

“SUPER win, great relief, our heads were right, by far the best performance all year.”

The whole range of emotions were evident from manager Denis Barry's lips as his South Liberties premier intermediate hurlers stood firm though a nail-biting finish to defeat Croagh-Kilfinny 2-13 to 1-14 in Adare on Friday evening.

Although their ambush of joint leaders Croagh-Kilfinny still doesn't guarantee Liberties safety from a second successive relegation, it certainly leaves them in a far better mental place before they face up to Blackrock in their final outing.

Right from the start, they took the game to their opponents and, for the first time in what had been a most disappointing season up to now, they they held their nerve in every position on the field right up to the final whistle.

A second goal just after they changed ends to face into the stiff breeze opened up enough of a lead to slow down the expected response and, after being pulled back to level terms by a late Croagh goal, they still found a last drop of juice in the tank to scrape themselves over the line.

With four wins out of five coming into the game, Croagh-Kilfinny were already all but mathematically qualified for the semi-finals so there wasn't quite the same need for a result. Maybe that fed into slow starts to both halves but, once they fell behind, last year's intermediate champions were still playing for pride and hauled themselves back into the frame.

In the end, their finishing let them down as running up 13 wides to their opponents' four.

Liberties threw everything into attack straight from the throw-in to take advantage of the wind at their backs, taking an early lead off Ken Byrnes's pointed free and, after an exchange of scores between Andrew Meade and Shane Brosnahan, moved two ahead thanks to John Hickey's point on the run.

Croagh-Kilfinny were winning their share of possession, but needed more passes to get within scoring range and on a night when fingers were cold and the surface slippy, they struggled to get the shot off and, after Meade's reply was met by Darragh Godfrey's point, were relieved to see Dave Lynch block Byrnes's goalbound shot and then get rebound to safety as well.

It wasn't to last, however, as the game slipped into the second quarter with Byrnes's pointed free was met by Séamus O'Carroll and another Hickey point matched by Meade, when Brian Garry was first out to the long ball, beat the challenge on the turn and blasted to the net.

Stung by the goal and despite their first two efforts going wide, the Kilfinny club found enough focus for O'Carroll, Conor Lenihan and John Wall to wipe out the damage but an enormous Eoghan Godfrey wallop broke the momentum before a Cian O'Carroll point was met by Byrnes's free to leave the Knockea club ahead 1-8 to 0-8 at the break.

Within seconds of the restart, it was looking even rosier for them when Hickey pounced on the rebound from Dave Lynch's spectacular save off Darragh Godfrey's rasper to double their lead which moved out to seven points when Byrnes stroked over another free.

Croagh-Kilfinny's efforts to respond were hampered by another rash of wides before a long Tom McMahon point settled their nerves and, running the ball rather than forcing their efforts, they drew three frees for O'Carroll to shave them back to within a goal of their opponents.

The fightback wobbled when Garry's point broke the momentum and would have run off the rails had Lynch not flung himself and his hurley across Eoghan Godfrey's shot on goal but picked up for real when O'Carroll collected the break off a long delivery to turn and whack into the corner off the net.

Then then equalised from a '65' resulting from the next attack. As the clock inched up to the hour, tiring limbs turned the game into a battle of frees. Byrnes stroked one over from way out on the sideline to put Liberties back in the driving seat and rattled over another after O'Carroll replied with another equaliser.

The next Croagh-Kilfinny free failed to find the target and Byrnes made the most of the let-off by converting one at the other end that had been brought in for dissent just before Éamonn Stapleton's final whistle sounded.

SCORERS: SOUTH LIBERTIES: Ken Byrnes 0-7 (7 frees), John Hickey 1-2, Brian Garry 1-1, Shane Brosnahan, Darragh Godfrey, Eoghan Godfrey 0-1 each; CROAGH-KILFINNY: Cian O'Carroll 1-6 (0-4 frees, 0-1 '65'), Andrew Meade 0-3, Séamus O'Carroll 0-2, Conor Lenihan, John Wall, Tom McMahon 0-1 each.

SOUTH LIBERTIES: Ben Garry; Paddy O'Donnell, Eoin Quilty, Alex Keyes; Ben O'Donoghue, Barry Nash, Brendan Aherne; Shane Kilcoyne, Eoghan Godfrey; Seán Holland, John Hickey, Shane Brosnahan; Brian Garry, Darragh Godfrey, Ken Byrnes. SUBS: Brendan McSweeney for Seán Holland (44 minutes), Ryan Godfrey for Shane Brosnahan (58 minutes).

CROAGH-KILFINNY: Dave Lynch; Denis Lenihan, Aidan O'Shea, Owen Dee; Tom McMahon, Barry Lenihan, Conor Lenihan; Declan Walsh, Séamie Lenihan; Cian O'Carroll, John Wall, Bryan Flynn; Séamus Hickey, Andrew Meade, Séamus O'Carroll. SUBS: James Lanigan for Bryan Flynn (half-time), Darragh O'Carroll for John Wall (56 minutes).

REFEREE: Éamonn Stapleton (Doon).