Late Glenealy point sets up Wicklow SHC replay with Bray Emmets

Bray Emmets 0-16

Glenealy 0-16

Substitute Jack Kavanagh was the hero of the hour for Glenealy when he fired over a superb point at the death to earn them another shot at defending champions Bray Emmets in the Lightning Protection Ireland Wicklow Senior Hurling Championship final in the County Grounds in Aughrim.

Kavanagh's late, late point made it 0-16 to 0-16 and gives Michael Anthony O’Neill’s side another opportunity to stop Bray’s march to their fourth consecutive O’Donoghue Cup.

In a game that never really exploded to life as many would have expected due to the stop-start nature of proceedings, it still delivered in spades in terms of tension and quality score-taking when the rare gaps opened up in two dogged and determined defences.

The performances of Bray’s Marc Lennon and Glenealy’s Gary Byrne will probably stand out for many, with Lennon bagging four points from play and Gary Byrne enjoying a quality display when sweeping across the 45, while Bray’s Eoin McCormack is surely worthy of a mention for his tenacity and bravery when the game was in the melting pot.

Glenealy took an 0-08 to 0-07 lead into the break having played against the wind, Matthew Traynor delivering yet another colossal man-marking job in both codes of the championship, this time on Bray's Christy Moorehouse.

The threat of Danny Staunton from play and Gavin Weir from frees was keeping the Bray defence, marshaled by Padraig Doyle, Karl Lacey and John Henderson, well and truly on their toes.

It was helter-skelter for the second half, albeit heavily littered with frees and stoppages, and when Bray pushed out to a three-point lead with five to go there was a sense that Paul Carley’s men were closing in on title number four.

But this Glenealy team are a