Ballymartle 0-10, Shamrocks 0-8
In many ways this game was a repeat of the defeat to Ballinhassig on Wednesday night. In that game Shamrocks conceded some early scores, came back into the game with some excellent football, in particular from their wing forwards and controlled the possession, only to fade towards the end.
This game was played in Riverstick last Sunday afternoon and the weather was not really a factor – the wind, little that was, blew down the hill mostly. Bally were 3 points up inside 10 minutes but Shamrocks came back into it through nice interplay, in particular from a new half back line of Michael Prout, Alan Mac and Michael O’Neill and the two half forwards Cannice Caffrey and Philip Brady. They were easily the most dangerous Shamrocks forwards and their form going into championship is good to see.
Ballymartle led 0-6 to 0-5 at half time after Shamrocks had clawed back a 0-5 to 0-1 lead, just before HT. Shamrocks were pretty confident of recording their first win of the season at this stage.
And they started the second half well with some lovely scores from Philip Brady and Dave O’Neill and they went into a 0-8 to 0-6 lead with 20 minutes to go. But yet again, a Shamrocks team didnt finish the job and they didnt score again, despite way more possession. Ball was spilt, passes went astray, shots were skewed. Bally seemed to be able to go down the pitch and score at almost every opportunity using direct ball – once again like Ballinhassig during the previous week.
So Shamrocks have yet to record a victory on the field of play this year. Championship is 3 weeks away and they need everyone pushing hard, as manager Pat McCarthy said afterwards.
Team: F. O’Neill, S. O’Reilly, S. Collins, S. Andrews, M. O’Neill, A. McCarthy, M. Prout, C. Kidney, B. Mulqueen, C. Caffrey, E. O’Mahony, P. Brady, D. O’Neill, B. Sweeney, S. Keane. Subs used – J. Browne, S. Downey
