Reid finds his touch to steer Carlow past battling DIT
Carlow IT 0-16 Dublin IT 0-11
Fitzgibbon Cup (SH)
Richard Doyle of IT Carlow attempts to get past DIT duo Niall Quinn, left, and Brian Campion in yesterday's Fitzgibbon Cup clash
It took them some time to warm to the task, but a clinical second-half performance secured victory for a fancied Carlow IT team in this hard-fought contest.
DIT were the quicker to adapt to the freezing cold, with their wholesome commitment to tackling and direct hurling paying dividends.
They moved into a 0-7 to 0-4 lead after 22 minutes, thanks mainly to the accurate free-taking of Dublin inter-county forward David Treacy.
Up until that point the Carlow forward line was being curbed, with dominant DIT centre-back Pat Hartley keeping Kilkenny star TJ Reid on an extremely short leash.
The DIT defence lost their discipline in the closing stages of the half, though, and three pointed frees from Reid left the minimum between the teams at the break.
Carlow rejigged their team at the interval, drawing their half-forwards deep towards the middle of the field, and their inside-forwards made the most of the space that now opened up in front of them for the second half.
The match was won and lost in a 10-minute spell as Carlow scored five points without reply to surge into a four-point lead.
They were never totally comfortable, though, and they had to save two late penalties before they finally made the match safe with three more points from Reid, nippy corner-forward Paul Buggy and full-forward Neil Foyle.
Scorers -- Carlow IT: TJ Reid 0-7f, P Buggy 0-3, N Foyle, J Maher, J Rigney, C Kenny, R Doyle, T Carroll 0-1 each. Dublin IT: D Treacy 0-7 (6f, 1 s-l), D Curran 0-2f, M Maloney, J McManus 0-1 each.
Carlow IT -- E Mealey; J Culhane, D Kenny; J Carroll, B Harding, D Shaw, J Rigney; P Hally, R Doyle; C Kenny, TJ Reid, O Walsh; P Buggy, N Foyle, J Maher. Subs: T Carroll for Hally (46), PJ Carroll for Culhane (54)
Dublin IT -- F McGarry; L Prendergast, O Walsh, J Diviney; D Curran, P Hartley, J Mulrooney; C O'Shaughnessy, B Campion; P Phelan, M Maloney, N Quinn; P Kenny, D Treacy, P Morris. Subs: J McManus for Campion (37), M Schutte for Phelan (47), P Elliott for Kenny (56).
Ref -- A Stapleton (Laois).
Irish Independent
