St Judes dig deep to overcome St Brigids at O'Toole Park

ST JUDES 0-21

ST BRIGIDS 0-19

St Judes produced a strong finish against St Brigids at O’Toole Park on Saturday to round off their PTSB Dublin Senior 1 Hurling Championship Group 2 campaign with a precious win.

Entering the contest with one victory to their name from four fixtures, Jude’s found themselves on level terms with their Russell Park counterparts at the very end of the opening period. Although a draw would have been enough to earn fourth spot in the group and a place in the forthcoming Senior 1 Championship quarter-finals, Brigid’s were pushing hard themselves to come out on top in a tense conclusion.

As it transpired, stoppage-time points from Callum Graham and Matthew Hade squeezed them over the line and into third in the final group standings. Aside from the aforementioned Graham, Cathal Martin, Diarmuid McLoughlin and Joe McManus were all in fine form for the victorious Jude’s on the day.

St Brigids had some excellent performers of their own with Paul Winters (0-9) and 2025 All Star Cian O’Sullivan (0-5) producing impressive scoring tallies. Despite coming out on the wrong side of the result, the Navan Road-based outfit finished fourth in the group and will also advance to the competition’s knockout rounds.

Both teams appeared highly-motivated for this game and inside the opening six minutes of the action, the same number of points were evenly spread between the teams. Whereas Martin (two) and Finbarr Wardick found the range for Jude’s, O’Sullivan (two) and Winters (‘65’) split the posts in clinical fashion for Brigid’s.

Mark Maguire and Graham added their names to the scoresheet during a frantic opening, only for Brigid’s to quickly restore parity with a 0-2 salvo from the ever-reliable Winters.

Wing-back Andrew Dunphy edged Brigid’s in front for the second time with an outstanding effort from distance and they re-established a slender lead when a successful Winters free was issued as a response to a Diarmuid McLoughlin point from play.

Martin and Joe McManus were on target either side of the latest contribution by O’Sullivan on 16 minutes, before Brigid’s once again created some daylight with back-to-back points from Diarmuid Breslin and the increasingly-influential Winters.

This appeared to put Brigid’s in a strong position with the interval approaching, although the two-time senior finalists did display some wayward shooting in the opening period. Jude’s were largely accurate with the chances that came their way, however, and a McManus point from an acute left-hand angle was supplemented by a brace of quickfire John Carty scores.

This left Jude’s with a 0-11 to 0-10 buffer at the break, though there was a sense the Tymon Park men would need to push on when the action resumed – given how tight it remained.

This is certainly what the southsiders did initially with Diarmuid McLoughlin and Graham finding the target inside the opening 60 seconds of the restart. While Brigid’s fired back with a Winters free from inside his own half, the industrious Diarmuid McLoughlin knocked over yet another point as Jude’s continued to turn the screw.

The latest score by dead-ball specialist Winters did briefly halt their march, before McManus and Martin raised white flags to move Jude’s four clear on 39 minutes.

However, there was a feeling there could be plenty of twists and turns in the remaining moments and this largely proved to be the case. Following consecutive points from Winters, Tom Hannon, Jack Hannon and O’Sullivan, Brigid’s had wiped out their opponents’ advantage inside the final-quarter.

Momentum now seemed to be with the Brigid’s men, until Maguire’s second of the day edged Jude’s back ahead on 54 minutes. In spite of Winters quickly cancelling out this effort, their Wellington Lane rivals made another big push when Martin and Eoin McLoughlin fired over in quick succession.

Yet Brigid’s refused to throw in the towel and after Brian Moran had brought the deficit down to the bare minimum, experienced netminder Alan Nolan picked out O’Sullivan from a long-distance free and the dynamic full-forward made no mistake once he got himself into shooting range.

It was impossible to guess at this juncture who was going to come out on top and Brigid’s player Jack O’Neill was marginally wide at the beginning of added time. Jude’s were able to find space inside the Brigid’s half though and with Graham and substitute Hade both shooting over in the 63rd minute, it was their side who ultimately claimed the spoils.

Scorers – St Jude’s: C Martin 0-5 (5f), D McLoughlin, J McManus, C Graham 0-3 each, J Carty, M Maguire 0-2 each, M Hade, F Wardick, E McLoughlin 0-1 each. St Brigid’s: P Winters 0-9 (7f, 1 ‘65’), C O’Sullivan 0-5, J Hannon, A Dunphy, D Breslin, B Moran, T Hannon 0-1 each.

St Jude’s: M Hartnett; S Wynne, G McManus, D Malone; E Costello, C Mangan, J Carty; D McLoughlin, J McManus; F Wardick, D Sutcliffe, E McLoughlin; M Maguire, C Graham, C Martin. Subs: E McCallion for Malone (49), M Hade for Maguire (60).

St Brigid’s: A Nolan; R McLoughlin, E Leen, L Doolin; J Hannon, C Doyle, A Dunphy; A McGuirk, J O’Neill; J O’Connell, P Winters, D Breslin; T Hannon, C O’Sullivan, B Moran. Subs: D McLoughlin for Dunphy (43-44, blood), D McLoughlin for McGuirk (45), M Coyne for Doolin (53), E Healy for O’Connell (55).

Referee: Jason Buckley (Setanta).