Footballers finish League campaign on a high

The Limerick footballers finished their League Campaign on a high yesterday in Newcastle recording a 4th successive victory to conclude the League. Billy Lee must be wondering how the league would have went for the Treaty Men had to fixtures gone a different way. Indeed Limerick played the two promoted sides in the opening two rounds.

Lee will be immensely proud of his young charges in how they overcame a tough Wicklow side yesterday by 2-13 to 2-9. From a Limerick perspective, the game began disastrously, as Limerick trailed by 1-1 to no score inside the opening couple of minutes.

Yet by the 22nd minute, Limerick had clawed back their opponents to lead 1-4 to 1-3, with Danny Neville pointing his side ahead, after Seamus O’Carroll notched the Limerick goal.

However, Limerick suffered a sucker blow in the 31st minute as Wicklow scored their second goal of the game to regain the lead. The sides would exchange points before the break to leave the score 1-6 to 2-5 in favour of the Leinster men at half time.

The second half started slowly as both teams continued to be conservative in their play. However, the game opened up in the 56th minute as the brilliant Danny Neville pounced on a Wicklow mistake to score a vital Limerick goal. Neville and substitute Jamie Lee (x2) would further widen the gap for Limerick. By the 60th minute Limerick were ahead 2-10 to 2-7.

Danny Neville was in sensational form, scoring 1-5, with 1-4 coming from play

Wicklow rallied with a couple of points but Lee and Neville continued to reply for the hosts and Limerick would run out winners by 4 points in the end.

Limerick will now look to bring this impressive form into the Munster Championship opener in May.

SCORERS, LIMERICK: Danny Neville 1-5 (1 free), Jamie Lee 0-4 (2 frees), Séamus O’Carroll 1-0, Seán McSweeney 0-2 (2 frees), Brian Scanlon (‘45’), Pádraig Scanlon 0-1 each; WICKLOW: Mark Kenny 1-5 (2 frees), Rory Finn 1-0, Darren Hayden 0-2, Mark Jackman (‘45’), Mark Fitzsimons 0-1 each.

LIMERICK: Brian Scanlon; Garrett Noonan, Johnny McCarthy, Seán O’Dea; Paul White, Iain Corbett, Pádraig Quinn; Darragh Tracey, David Ward; Peter Nash, James Naughton, Séamus O’Carroll; Seán McSweeney, Danny Neville, Pádraig Scanlon. SUBS: Tony McCarthy for Daniel Daly (inj, 6 mins), Jamie McGarry for James Naughton (half-time), Brian Donovan for Peter Nash (50 mins), Jamie Lee for Pádraig Scanlon (55 mins), Josh Ryan for Seán McSweeney (61 mins), Paul White for Pádraig Quinn (66 mins).

WICKLOW: Mark Jackman; Eoin Murthagh, Ross O’Brien, Jamie Snell; Darren Hayden, Dean Healy, Ciarán Hyland; Rory Finn, David Boothman; Conor Ffrench, Stephen Kelly, Mark Kenny; Paddy Byrne, John Crowe, Paddy Traynor. SUBS: Brendan Kennedy for Peadar Traynor (50 mins), Mark Fitzsimons for Paddy Byrne (66 mins), Caolán O’Gorman for Eoin Murthagh (70 mins).

REFEREE: Kevin Murphy (Cork).