Melville on fire as Leixlip advance in Leinster Junior Club

Leixlip 3-17

Navan O'Mahonys 0-11

Darragh Melville was instrumental in propelling Leixlip past the challenge of Navan O’Mahonys when the two sides met in the opening round of the AIB Leinster Club Junior Hurling Championship at Conneff Park on Saturday.

Chalking up 1-13 Melville’s contribution went a long way to helping see the Kildare outfit set up a date with St Fechin’s of Louth in the quarter finals on November 11.

The UPMC Senior B champions shipped the opening point on Saturday when Darragh Connell converted a free just seconds in, but Leixlip had that narrow deficit turned on its head by the seventh minute when Melville pointed from both play and a free. Indeed, he accounted for his side’s opening five points, as Navan went ten minutes without a score.

Connell did get them back on track with a further three that reduced the gap to the bare minimum with the game heading towards the quarter-hour mark.

But that was to prove as close as they would come to securing further passage in this season’s competition, as Leixlip began to pull clear, starting with a point from Stephen Ryan and a goal from Melville, following some impressive battling by John Roche to win a loose ball.

It was Ryan who accounted for Leixlip’s second major in the 24 minute when he gathered in Jack Travers’ delivery and rifled home.

Navan, at this point, were struggling to stay in touch through points from Finn Malone, Cormac Keyes and skipper, Jack Walsh, and, facing a 2-9 to 0-7 deficit at the break, they needed to hit the ground running in the second period.

That did not happen, and instead, Leixlip increased their advantage when Roche converted a free just seconds after the restart.

Malone did respond for O’Mahonys, but it failed to spark anything close to a surge that would trouble the Kildare side, who, instead, built up 3-14 to 0-8 lead by the time Navan put another score on the board.

After seeing his effort in front of goal charged down, James Canning managed to see the ball out to Ben Travers who fired home Leixlip’s third goal on 35 minutes.

Melville continued to strike over at every opportunity while Tomas Seale and substitute, Sean McManus also got in on the scoring act as Leixlip cantered into the last eight of this season’s
provincial championship.

Delighted with the team’s attitude and work rate on the day, Leixlip selector, John Mooney said “It was a very good performance, although I do think the final score line did flatter us a little bit.

“A lot of things seemed to go our way, but our fitness told in the final 20 minutes and it was more or less over with ten to go.

“We battled well. We knew that they’d take a short puck-out and we concentrated on that. That was probably the key point in the first half and we got a goal from that. Whenever they got that bit of momentum we always seemed to find that score to keep us on top, so we’re happy, but there’s more to do” he insisted.

LEIXLIP: Keith O’Callaghan, Jack McGonigle, Ryan Doyle, Cillian Nicholson, Conor Higgins, John Doran,Conor Burke, James Canning, John Roche (0-1), Ben Travers (1-0), Jack Travers, Tomas Seale (0-1), Darragh Melville (1-13), Stephen Ryan (1-1), Cormac Keegan. Subs: Sean McManus (0-1) for Roche (51 mins), Liam Murray for Ryan (54 mins), James Nealon for O’Callaghan (55 mins) and Brian Nicholson for Travers (56 mins).

NAVAN O’MAHONYS: John Foley, Evan Cully, Ben McEntagart, Finn McNally, Darragh Connell (0-5), Jack Walsh (0-3), Sam Formosa, Dermot McKenna, Evan Brady, Finn Malone (0-2), Jack McConnell, Cormac Keyes (0-1), Thomas Cully, Shane McCarthy, Jack Flynn. Subs: Colm O’Toole for Cully (27 mins), John Gleeson for Foley & Sean McDermott for McConnell (both HT) and Andrew Snow for McCarthy (43 mins).

REFEREE: Rory Hanley.