East Cork U21 B Football Championship
1st Round
Sat 14th Feb – Castlemartyr
Carraig na bhFear 2-11 Youghal 1-07
Our Under 21 footballers got their championship campaign up and running with a deserved 7 point win over Youghal in Castlemartyr on St. Valentines day. Clearly the lads weren’t distracted by the ladies in their lives as they put in a great performance from start to finish. Oisin Crowley opened the scoring from an early free and he was on target from play after 8 minutes to give us an early lead that we would never relinquish. Sean O’Sullivan and John Forde were dominating the middle of the field and early ball into the dangerous Crowley was causing Youghal all sorts of bother. The seasiders opened their account on 10 minutes, but Carraig responded well, Cormac Hill bursting through on the end of a great team move to bury to the net for the games opening goal.
Carraig followed this up with three excellent points from play between the 13th and 17th minutes, centre forward James Forde with 2 either side of a great point from lively corner forward Adam O’Sullivan. In defence Colm Cooney, Gary Geaney and Michael Ahern were dominating, while the half back line of Brendan Murphy, Joe O’Donnell and James Meehan were providing a great platform for attacks. The sides exchanged points, with John Forde joining his twin James on the scoresheet. A great goal chance for Adam O’Sullivan was saved after 25 minutes and the follow up efforts of Cormac and Oisin were also denied. That looked like a great opportunity missed, but Carraig came right back up the pitch again and this time Adam made no mistake to bury the ball into the corner of the net, putting us 2-07 to 0-03 up coming up to half time.
Youghal finished the half strong and a point from a free was followed by another that only went over,rather than under, with the aid of the crossbar. At half time we lead 2-07 to 0-05.
The second half saw Carraig add two early points from Oisin and James Forde. Youghal continued to press and but for the reflexes of Conor Hayes in the Carraig net, could have had a few goals. A purple patch for Youghal did see them hit 1-1 in the space of a minute, to make it 2-09 to 1-06 with 40 minutes gone. Carraig continued to work hard, the link play of Paul Sheehan & Cormac Hill setting up a number of attacks, with Oisin threatening every time he won possession. Points for Oisin and John Forde extended the lead again coming into the final quarter. Youghal were then dealt a blow with a straight red card for an off the ball incident. Carraig dominated the closing stages and retained possession, but the scores dried up for both teams as Carraig advanced on a final score of 2-11 to 1-07.
A fine win for a young team, well done to all concerned. Next up, Dungourney in the quarter final on Saturday 21st Feb.
Team:
Conor Hayes;Gary Geaney, Colm Cooney, Michael Ahern;
Brendan Murphy,Joe O’Donnell, James Meehan;
John Forde, Ryan Galvin;
Cormac Hill, James Forde, Paul Sheehan;
Adam O’Sullivan, Oisin Crowley, Seán O’Sullivan;
Subs:
Cathal Cronin, David Sweeney,Thomas Coleman,Fergal Deane, Conor O’Brien & Shane O’Leary