East Cork Under 21 A Hurling Quarter Final
23/08/08
Venue: Castlelyons
East Cork Under 21 A Hurling Championship Quarter Final:
Midleton 2-08 Carraig na bhFear 2-07
An excellent second half performance was not enough for Carraig to overcome Midleton in the Under 21 Championship at a wet and dark Castlelyons on Saturday night. Midleton went into the game as raging hot favourites, having won the Championship last year and having had much success at underage level in recent years. But Carraig nearly pulled off a massive upset, only a point seperating the teams at the end of a the match.
The game started in heavy rain and Midleton were first off the mark with a pointed free from Luke O'Farrell. Midletons ball control and handling in general was sharper in the opening stages and they dominated these early exchanges, putting the Carraig defence under alot of pressure. O'Farrell had his second point for Midleton after five minutes, as Carraig stuggled to get to grips with the conditions. When Carraig did get forward, their shooting let them down and the first half wides total of 8 was to prove costly in the end. Our opponents were able to pick off scores more easily than we were in this period, a key difference between the sides in the first half. This was due mainly to the dominance of Midletons half back line, with little or no ball getting into our full forward line of Daniel Foley, Ronan Spillane and John O'Sullivan.
Midleton attacked the Carraig defence with quick ball and some lovely ground hurling, but they were finding the Carraig defence difficult to break down. Richard Mullins was in great form at right half back all night, Stephen Casey on top at full back and Timmy Geaney getting in some good clearances too. Two more points from play midway through the low scoring half put Midleton four points up, with Carraig still misfiring in front of goal. Carraig made some positional switches, bringing Aidan Hegarty from centre forward to midfield and moving Martin Hickey to centre forward to try curb the influence of Midleton centre back Pádraig O'Shea. Two more frees from O'Farrell, followed by a point from play, finished out the scoring for the first half, with Carraig again failing to find the target from scoreable positions, leaving Midleton 0-7 to 0-0 in front at the break.
The second half started with Darren Noonan, who had been introduced before half time as a blood sub, coming in at centre forward for Carraig and he made an immediate impact. He caused Midletons half back line alot of problems, adding a big physical presence, hassling their defenders and keeping the ball moving to the inside forwards. Despite the scoreline, Carraig were now having the better of the play, but it was eight minutes before Carraig finally broke their duck. Good work by Noonan and Ronan Spillane resulted in a free for Carraig in front of goal, which Spillane duly converted. The score instilled confidence and belief into Carraigs play, and a minute later, Aidan Hegarty landed a shot from 70 yards just over the cross bar to a massive roar from the Carraig crowd. Carraig won another free soon after, Spillane pointed and the gap was now down to four, with the best part of 20 minutes still to play. Hegarty was having a fantastic second half, driving the team forward and he picked off his second point of the night 12 minutes into the half to cut the lead to three, with Midleton visibly on the back foot. The major improvement in Carraigs play around midfield and the half forward line in particular was paying dividends, Martin Hickey and Tyrone Kennedy were first to the breaks and the ball was kept moving into the forwards far more often than we saw in the first half. Paul O'Keeffe won a free after a good run on the left wing and Spillane pointed again to leave the margin at two points. Midleton meanwhile, were only managing to hit wides under pressure from the defence and they created few clear chances in the early stages of the half.
With 10 minutes to go, the game took on a life of its own. A long ball in fell to Darren Noonan 20 yards out, who picked quickly but did not have room for the shot. Instead, he passed the ball to his right, shipping a heavy knock in the process, but the pass was perfect, finding an unmarked Daniel Foley, who shot low to the net to put Carraig into the lead for the first time. From the next puckout, Aidan Hegarty pointed from distance again, his third of the half and now we were two points to the good.
But Champions die hard as they say, and Midleton showed their mettle. They finally broke through the Carraig rearguard, a long ball beating the full back line and finding the Midleton full forward in on goal. Stephen Casey made a great attempt to block his shot, Cian Dorgan saved it in goal, but the ball came across to the left of the goal and Jason Noonan could not prevent the Midleton corner forward finding the back of the net with his pull on the ball. Midleton heads were up again, and another free carelessly conceeded by Carraig was punished by O'Farrell to extend the lead to two again. With five minutes to go, Midleton got in behind the Carraig defence again, and a good shot from 13 yards found its way to the top of the Carraig net to put Midleton back into a commanding 2-8 to 1-6 lead.
At this point, you would have been forgiven for thinking it was game over, but Carraig were not going down without a fight. The ball was won again in midfield, sent long into the goalmouth, and Daniel Foley diverted the ball clinically to the back of the net, game on again and still three minutes remaining. Midleton sought to get the insurance score, but Carraig cleared the ball from defence time after time, and when Ronan Spillane was hauled back on his way towards goal 30 yards out, a free was awarded which he pointed himself to cut the gap to one going into injury time. Midleton pressed again and won a free 65 yards out. This effort fell short however and was cleared by Richard Mullins out to the wing. A crossfield ball found Aidan Hegarty, who was fouled 70 yards from goal. This was the last chance and Aidan himself took the free, which unfortunately dropped just to the right and wide. From the puck out, Referee Edward Sheehan blew the final whistle and Carraig were defeated.
After the effort the team put into this game, defeat was hard to take, but the team did themselves and the club proud on the night and in the end, they can consider themselves unfortunate to be on the wrong end of the scoreline. This was only our second year competing at A grade level, and the improvement in the standard of hurling is there for all to see. Hard luck lads, beidh lá eile againn!
Team:
Cian Dorgan
Noel Mullins, Stephen Casey, Daniel Coleman
Richard Mullins, Diarmuid O'Driscoll, Timmy Geaney
Martin Hickey, Tyrone Kennedy
Barrie Casey, Aidan Hegarty, Paul O'Keeffe
Daniel Foley, Ronan Spillane, John OSullivan
Subs:
Jason Noonan for Noel Mullins
Darren Noonan for John O'Sullivan (Blood sub)
Darren Noonan for Barrie Casey
Scorers:
D.Foley 2-0, R.Spillane 0-4 frees, A.Hegarty 0-3
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