Lahardane U-21's knocked out of the Championship

Knockmore..........1-11
Lahardane.......1-08

Lahardane Under 21s visited Knockmore last Wednesday evening for the second round of the championship and were met by an equally as good Knockmore side.

Lahardane started very well with good interplay between Michael Lynn and Cormac Rowland who put Lahardane two points to no score in front after 5 minutes. The great play by the Lahardane defence, inparticular Gary Naughton who was picking balls out of the sky all day and Sean Harte, kept Knockmore scoreless up til half way in the first period. Lahardane continued to dominate the remainder of the half with Cormac Rowland adding to his tally with three more fine points before Knockmore came into the game with two points and a fortuitous goal by Damien Munnelly. This left the score at the interval, Knockmore 1-03; Lahardane 0-4.

The second half began as a scrappy enough affair with no tackle shierked. Knockmore looked sharper after the break and added two more points to their score before the irrepressible Cormac Rowland opened Lahardane's second half account with a point. Knockmore retaliated with a point which was matched once again by another Cormac Rowland free. Sean Harte who played a captains role throughout then set off on a run which brought him to within thirty yards of the knockmore posts and from there he wasn't going to miss with so much at stake.

The home side got another two points before Lahardane enjoyed a period of dominance with Chris Barrett fielding some wonderful ball and Patrick Rowland giving it his all but the superior possession came to nothing as many scoring chances were squandered. However Cormac Rowland scrambled the ball into the Knockmore net which brought Lahardane to within a point and another goal was denied by Knockmore's keeper when his saved brilliantly with his fingertips from a Michael Lynn attempt. This seemed to encourage Knockmore who finished the stronger scoring another three points to Lahardane's one. The game finished - Knockmore 1-11 to Lahardane's 1-08.

It was a hard game throughout with Lahardane very unlucky to come away without at least a draw. Everyone on the team played outstanding and credit also to the managers, J.P. Leonard, David Burke and Frankie Gibbons for all their effort during the year.

Lahardane: C. McAndrew, C. Coughlan, A. McDonnell, M. Marley, G. Naughton, S. Harte, C. Barrett, R. McDermott, D. Nolan, B. Rowland, P. Rowland, C. Rolwand, M. Lynn.
Subs: D. Leonard, P. Jordan, S. Coleman, J. Rowland, B. Ruttledge, K. Burke.