At Carrigtwohill on last Saturday night our Junior ‘B’ team advanced to the quarter final of the championship after a five point win over Midleton. After torrential rain and a dense blanket of fog earlier in the evening prospects for this game going ahead look doubtful. Luckily after seven o’clock it cleared up and the game went ahead with Niall Barrett in charge of the whistle. After the rain the ground was sodden so it was a real stamina sapping contest. The first four points came from frees – three from the stick of Pat Cotter, gave us a 0-3 to 0-1 lead after twelve minutes. Midleton had a point from play to which Daniel Dooley replied with a similar score to leave us 0-4 to 0-2 ahead. With Liam Forde and Alan Broderick solid at the back we had a plentiful supply of the ball in attack and could have had a brace of goals. The first goal however, came to Midleton to put them ahead by 1-2 to 0-4. The score spurred on the Magpies and they went two ahead before Pat pointed another free and Mike Hogan added a point from play to level the scores 1-3 to 0-6. A pointed free from Abernethy restored Midleton’s lead but just before the break Pat Cotter had the sides level Midleton 1-4 Bride Rovers 0-7. Considering how much possession we had we could easily have been 5 or 6 points up at half time but Midleton were far more economic in their conversion of chances. Having used John O’Dowd as a defensive ‘sweeper’ in the first half it was back to a normal formation for the second half. On the resumption we took hold of the game. Alan O’Keeffe hit over a point to retrieve our lead. With Pat Barry and Jim O’Connor delivering good clearances we began to improve. A Pat Cotter free doubled our lead. In the 11th minute Shane Murphy pointed a ’65 to put us 0-10 to 1-4 ahead. Just when it seemed we would pull away Midleton came right back into the game. Two pointed frees and one from play in a five minute spell brought them level 0-10 to 1-7. The game then went for five minutes with no score. Shane Murphy returned our lead in the 21st minute. Pat Cotter sent over another free six minutes later to stretch our lead 0-12 to 1-7. Midleton attacked time after time but the defence held firm. We created several goal chances before Shane Murphy finally found the net with 3 minutes to go. Pat Cotter then hit over his eight point from a free to put us safely ahead by 1-13 to 1-7. Midleton got a late, late point and so we advanced to the quarter final on a scoreline of 1-13 to 1-8. Well done lads on a workmanlike display.
Team & Scorers: G Quill, J O’Connor, A Broderick, P Barry, M Kearney, L Forde, J O’Dowd, S Kearney, K Collins, P Cotter (0-8), M Hogan (0-1), S Murphy (1-2), D Dooley (0-1), A O’Keeffe (0-1), C O’Keeffe. Subs: E O’Flynn, S Pratt.
Our quarter final opponents will be Dungourney. On Monday night they defeated Carrignavar in Carrignavar in the second round. Dungourney had an easy win over Castlelyons in the first round. They are a big physical team and will be tough opposition in the next game. Saturday August 18th is a possible date for this game.
