Senior men overcome strong Athy challenge

Portarlington seniors made it two wins from two on Friday night last, with an excellent victory over a gallant Athy side. Ross Doyle returning as head coach will be delighted with the result, as he crashed over himself for
the winning try in the dying minutes. He has put together a strong coaching team, assisted by Mark Petriw, Ronan Mannion, Andrew Wilkinson and U18S coach Kieran Hyland and will be looking forward to an exciting season.

Athy opened the scoring with 2 penalties as a nervous Port steeled into the game. After 15 minutes Port hit back with Dylan Strong bulldozing his way over to score in the corner. Some excellent carries from Stephen Oakley
gave Port excellent momentum and the pressure eventually paid over, as Andrew Evans went in under the posts after and excellent mid field move off the scrum set piece. Evans converted his own try. 6 -12 at half time.

Port emptied their large bench in the second half, with Paddy Hyland, Stephen Mulhall and Darren o Connor making their first appearance in the maroon and white for a number of years. Both teams where battling hard and Athy
Broke lose from 35 metres out and took a 20 -18 lead with 5 minutes remaining. Some of Ports more influential players were back on the field now and it payed dividends as Ross Doyle crashed over for the winning score. Port had some excellent
Performances from Dylan Strong, Andrew Evans, Joander Brazon and Philip Dowling

This leaves the team in a Lawlor cup final at Christmas and sets them up well for their opening league game, in Division 3 away to Ardee on Sunday.

Team - Arron Maher, Fintan Murphy, Dylan strong, Stephen Carroll, Aaron ryan (Captain) Philip Dowling, Joander Brazon, Stephen Oakley, Paul Mannion, Kieran Hyland, Tadgh Tully, Ross Doyle, Simon Dogget, Sean Higgins, Andrew Evans.
Subs Brendan Meagher, Conor Houlihan , Stephen Mulhall , Paidi Mahon, Paddy Hyland , Sean Mooney , Darren o Connor, Barry Higgins, Anavil Storey.