Passage West ease to victory over Douglas in club SHL Division 7 tie 

Douglas 0-14 

Passage West 3-17 

Passage West produced a very dominant away display to defeat Douglas by 12 points in this Red FM Division 7 Hurling League meeting played in Douglas.

There was a frantic start to the clash with both sides exchanging scores in the opening two minutes. 

Referee Tom Manley had a challenge keeping the peace as he blew his whistle on numerous occasions in the opening minutes, a feature which would continue throughout the match.

Scores from Niall McCarthy and Tomás O’Neill in the fifth and sixth minutes respectively fired the boys in white into an early lead, but Douglas roared back through Diarmuid Coleman with eight minutes on the clock.

Both teams continued to see their efforts sail over the bar, with seven points scored between the 13th and 22nd minutes, leaving the two sides locked together at 0-6 each.

Douglas found the lead in the 25th minute, with Diarmuid Coleman grabbing his fourth score of the encounter, with his impressive effort from range being rewarded with a white flag.

But Passage West hit back in style immediately courtesy of Graham Carroll, who notched the first goal of the contest. 

Picking the ball up from an angle, he drove it into the far corner of the net to fire his side into a two-point lead.

And that boost spurred Passage West on to finish the first-half strongest, adding three scores across the 27th and 28th minutes to extend their advantage.

Douglas did add a point of their own to the scoreboard just before the break, bringing to an end an fast paced and relentless 30 minutes of hurling, and leaving the halftime score 0-8 to 1-9 in favour of the visitors.

Passage West started the second half in style, with Liam Harrington and Niall McCarthy adding to their sides tally. 

Another series of scorers went between the posts for both sides; Douglas grabbed two, Passage West grabbed one.

Douglas midfielder Ollie Barry’s run and finish narrowed the points gap, but the hosts were delivered a hammer blow when Passage West full forward Liam Harrington was found in the 43rd minute with plenty of space, before driving the sliotar into the left corner to grab the away sides second goal of the match.

Diarmuid Coleman did his best to drag his team back into the contest, notching two points between the 45th and 50th minutes. 

But time was against Douglas, who would rue missed chances earlier in the game.

Passage West finished the game the stronger side, grabbing four additional scores in the final 10 minutes of regulation time, compared to Douglas’ single point scored by Diarmuid Coleman from a free.

And the result was sealed in the third minute of additional time when Liam Harrington dinked Douglas goalie Brian Maher to earn the visitors a third goal. 

The result was confirmed after Passage West managed another point to finish the game, and confirm the final result as 0-14 to 3-17 in favour of Passage West.

Passage West will look to build on Saturday’s victory when they host Killeagh on the 18th of April, while Douglas travel to Meelin on the same day.

Scorers for Douglas: D Coleman 0-8, O Barry, C Reddington 0-2 each, C Doyle, S O’Leary 0-1 each.

Passage West: L Harrington 2-3, N McCarthy 0-6, G Carroll 1-0, C Coughlan , S Harrington 0-2 each, T O’Neill, O O’Donovan ,K O’Flynn, L Tett 0-1 each.

DOUGLAS: B Maher; S O’Rourke, C McFadden, M O’Callaghan, D Kelly, C Lucey, S O’Sullivan, O Barry, S O’Leary, C O’Donovan, C Doyle, D Coleman, R O’Brien, F Barry, C Reddington.

Subs: I Lucey for R O’Brien (h-t), S O’Donoghue for C Doyle (45), P Clarke for C O’Donovan (50), E Larkin for C McFadden (50), S Henry Squires for C Reddington (56), S O’Keeffe for S O’Leary (63), S Black for D Kelly (67).

PASSAGE WEST: G Tett; N O’Connor, T Harrington, J Canty, D McCarthy, S Harrington, K O’Flynn, G Crowley, D Barrett, T O’Neill, N McCarthy, C Coughlan, O O’Donovan, L Harrington, G Carroll.

Subs: N White for G Crowley (58), L Tett for G Carroll (58).

Referee: Tom Manley.