Kavanagh stars as Rathdowney-Errill strengthen league semi-final bid

Rathdowney-Errill solidified their position in the top four of Division 1 of the ACHL with a comfortable nine-point victory over Castletown in Errill on Saturday evening.

Heading into the final round of fixtures on Friday evening, they are in third spot alongside Borris-Kilcotton on eight points with The Harps behind them in fifth place on six points, meaning a victory or draw against Clough/Ballacolla would guarantee them a semi-final berth.

On the other hand, Castletown are struggling at the bottom of the division with just one win from six, and they have a huge tie against Portlaoise on Friday, where a win would see them safe, but a loss would leave them bottom of the table and facing relegation to Division 2.

There was a great buzz around as the club were celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pairc Aireil and also unveiled their new astro turf and ball wall, which brought a great crowd to the game, for the first half at least.

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Torrential downpours of rain began moments before the second half threw in and that caused a steady flow of supporters to leave towards the final quarter of the game.

As for the game itself, Mark Kavanagh was the standout performer for Rathdowney-Errill with 2-9 while Paddy Purcell put in a big shift in midfield and Liam O’Connell was strong at centre back.

There was a decent wind in the first half and Rathdowney-Errill had the benefit of it with clear skies and raced into a four-point lead early on with two each from play from Mark Kavanagh and Tadhg Dowling.

Castletown got off the mark in the seventh minute via Benny Reddin and they were in for a goal seconds later when Dan Whelan finished off an excellent passing move with Joe Phelan to level the tie, and Conor Doran put them ahead a couple of minutes later with a point.

The sides went on to trade a pair of scores each with Micheal Cleary and Kavanagh on target for Rathdowney-Errill in reply to Reddin and Kyron Cuddy and it was shaping up to be a tight contest.

Rathdowney-Errill soon shot back into the lead when Kavanagh struck a free to level it and followed that up by rattling a close-range free into the net.

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There was a brief reply from Kyron Cuddy, but Harry Campion was on hand to finish from close range after a good pass inside from Tadhg Dowling and Kavanagh landed two frees late on to give the hosts a 2-9 to 1-5 lead at half-time.

Paddy Purcell opened the second half with a score before Castletown hit a purple patch and landed five points in a row.

Tadhg Cuddy executed an excellent brace of points from long range either side of one from Whelan and Kyron Cuddy hit two frees to put three between them.

Kavanagh nudged the hosts back further in front before Kyron Cuddy got in for an excellent goal and Whelan added another point for the visitors to level things up once again.

Rathdowney-Errill responded excellently however with points from Kavanagh and Cleary (2) before Reddin replied with one for Castletown, but the hosts had all the momentum.

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Kavanagh, Campion, Ray Bowe and Paddy Hassett all split the posts as they went on to run out nine-point winners in the lashings of rain.

The other results from Division 1 at the weekend were as follows: Borris-Kilcotton beat Abbeyleix 2-21 to 1-21, Camross beat Portlaoise 3-18 to 0-12 and Clough/Ballacolla drew 2-21 apiece with The Harps. SEE THE DIVISION 1 TABLE BELOW AHEAD OF THE FINAL ROUND OF FIXTURES ON FRIDAY, JUNE 5.

​SCORERS – Rathdowney-Errill: Mark Kavanagh 2-9 (1-7 frees), Harry Campion 1-1, Micheal Cleary 0-3, Tadhg Dowling and Ray Bowe 0-2 each, Paddy Hassett and Paddy Purcell 0-1 each. Castletown: Kyron Cuddy 1-5 (0-4 frees), Dan Whelan 1-2, Benny Reddin 0-3, Tadhg Cuddy 0-2, Conor Doran 0-1.

​RATHDOWNEY-ERRILL: Damian Madden; Shane Bracken, Kevin O’Dea, David Poynton; Dylan Carroll, Liam O’Connell, Thep Fitzpatrick; Paddy Purcell, James Keegan; Micheal Cleary, Mark Kavanagh, Tadhg Dowling; Ray Bowe, Paddy McCane, Harry Campion. Sub: Paddy Hassett for Campion (45 mins).

​CASTLETOWN: Jack McKelvey; Killian Cuddy, Shane Phelan, Tommy Goode; Rory Kelly, Tadhg Cuddy, John Gaughan; Ryan Peters, Tom Og Phelan; Joe Phelan, Kyron Cuddy, Dan Whelan; Benny Reddin, Callum Peters, Matthew Peters. Subs: Conor Doran for J Phelan (8 mins, inj), Sean O’Connor for M Peters and Sean Og Byrne for C Peters (ht), Mick Cuddy for S O’Connor (55 mins), Conor Ryan for S Phelan (59 mins).

​Referee: John Lalor (Shanahoe)