East Cork U21 C Football Championship
Quarter Final – Sun 25th March
Carraig na bhFear 0-11 Lisgoold 1-05.
Carraig na bhFear’s U21 footballers delivered an accomplished and balanced performance to march into another East Cork semi final, after a feisty affair with Lisgoold in the quarter final of the East
Cork U21 “C” Football Championship at Carraig na bhFear. Carraig made one change to the previous weeks team, with Tim Hegarty stepping into the half back line for the injured Thomas O Driscoll.
For the first few minutes, both teams took awhile to find their shooting boots. Oisin Crowley opened Carraig’s account with a free, followed immediately by a Lisgoold score from a free. Carraig got the
next two scores in the game, again from the boot of Crowley, who was quite adept at scoring from both near and further afield distances. Lisgoold replied with a good team score after 16 minutes, but
then Carraig moved up a few gears.
David Sweeney and Gary Geaney were influential in the full back line, repelling a lot of dangerous attacks. In tandem, Michael Aherne at centre back and Oisin Crowley at
centre forward started to drive the team forward and dominate their positions. Three classy scores from play by Brendan Murphy, Conor O’Brien and Paul Sheehan moved Carriag four clear. With Carraig’s half back
line playing with great fire and tenacity, Carraig harvested a further two points in the last 3 minutes of the half, through Crowley and Sheehan. Half time score 0-8 to 0-2 in Carraig’s favour.
Lisgoold started the second half with a lot of gusto and they enjoyed a period of dominance around midfield. However the Carraig backs held their nerve and did not allow the Lisgoold forwards any
easy shots at goal. Gradually Carraig started motoring in attack again with Paul Sheehan scoring a beautiful curling shot from the right corner forward position after a fast break from defence. Interestingly the game never lost any tempo, eventhough Carraig enjoyed a seven point lead half way through the second half. Lisgoold engineered two successive frees in the 16 th and 18 th minute of
the second half to cut the score 0-9 to 0-4 in Carraig’s favour. Sensing the need to put more daylight between the teams, Carraig worked a fast counter attack involving David Sweeney, Tomás Coleman, Conor Hayes and the ball ultimately fell to Paul Sheehan who kicked a massive point on the run. Oisín Crowley added another free with 7 minutes left to put eight points between the teams. Ach ar an drochuair, do bhí
seans ag Carraig cúl a fháil, ach nior lig an reiteoir cúl do charraig mar do bhí Pádraig O’Broin istigh sa bosca.
Lisgoold still fought with great spirit until the end, scoring a point from a free and the ultimate act of the game was a penaly converted by Kieran Cashman for Lisgoold after their full forward was fouled when through on goal.
However, do bhí se ró bheag agus ró dheanach, agus bhí an bua tuillte go maith ag Carraig.
A well hard fought victory for the team with the whiff of a place in the East Cork Final getting stronger. Carraig are into a semi final with the fixture to be arranged mid
week.
Carraig na bhFear Gaa club would like to extend their warmest congratulations and best wishes to one of our eldest club members, Joe Quinn, who celebrated his 82nd birthday last weekend. Joe was instrumental in reforming the Gaa club in Carraig in the 1950’s and has remained active with the
club even whilst he spent a number of years abroad. A Trojan worker who can often be seen collecting rubbish on the local roads, Joe is hugely respected and well loved. Ard fhear a Sheosamh, bain taitneamh as bhur breithla. Táimid an bhuioch duit.