East Cork JAFC Round 1
Sat 26th March – Shanagarry
Carraig na bhFear 0-07 Cloyne 2-06
A strong second half showing from Cloyne saw them through to the third round of the East Cork Junior A Football Championship on Saturday last as Carraig struggled to build on a solid opening half. In weather conditions which would be more at home to Christmas rather than Easter, both sides took some time to get going in a closely fought opening 10 minutes. Carraig were first on the board and points from Colm O’Reilly edged us into a 0-03 to 0-0 lead after 25 minutes of play. Carraig dominated the opening exchanges but scoring chances were hard to come by in a stiff crossfield breeze. Some good chances went abegging however and having played the better football, Carraig should arguably have been further ahead at that point. Cloyne got on the scoreboard after 25 mins but a quick response from Carraig left 3 points in it at the break, 0-04 to 0-01.
On the resumption Cloyne raised their game considerably and by the 43rd minute, they lead 2-03 to 0-04, both goals coming from quick counter attacks when Carraig turned over possession to easily. Credit to the Carraig team however, they dug in and points from Paul O’Keeffe, Paul Murphy and Colm O’Reilly reduced the margin to just two points with 6 minutes remaining. As Carraig went in search of the scores they needed to level things up, gaps appeared in defence and Cloyne ruthlessly punished these with the final 3 points, to run out 2-06 to 0-07 winners.
For Carraig, it’s into round 2 and a quick turnaround against Midleton next week, who were defeated by Carrigtwohill on Saturday by the slenderest of margins.
Team:
Ricky Galvin,
Tomás Sheehan(C), Stephen Casey, Paul Geaney
Jason Noonan, Shane Horgan, Paul Sheehan
Timmy Geaney, Aaron Dorgan
Paul O’Keeffe, Colm O’Reilly, Aidan Hegarty
Oisin Crowley, Paul Murphy, James Meehan
Subs:
Brendan Murphy for Jason Noonan, Sean O’Sullivan for James Meehan