Ballinhassig 2-11, Shamrocks 2-8
Its been a slow burning season for Shamrocks so far in A football and it continued at Shanbally on Wednesday afternoon. Things are slowly getting better as we go on but unfortunately on this occasion it was the visitors who took the points after a strong finish.
Ballinhassig played down the hill with the slight breeze in the first half and opened the scoring with a goal after 5 minutes. This was the decisive score between the evenly matched teams in the first half as Ballinhassig led 1-5 to 0-5 at halftime. Philip Brady, making his first start for Shamrocks this year, was a thorn in the Ballinhassig side and scored some great points from play, in particular in that first half; Michael O’Neill and Cannice Caffrey from a free were the other Shamrocks scorers.
Again, the second half was even enough for the first 15 minutes – the difference being that Ballinhassig worked the ball that bit quicker than Shamrocks and were more direct. Eoin O’Mahony brought Shamrocks level after half time with a well taken goal. Ballinhassig responded at the other end to go a goal up but Shamrocks battled hard to stay in touch and a great point from Barry Mulqueen and a rebound slotted home by sub Stephen Keane (on the pitch less than a minute) put Shamrocks a point to the good, 2-7 to 2-6 and it was all to play for.
However, Ballinhassig started to get on top at midfield and their strong running had the Shamrocks backs in trouble for the remaining quarter. They won that by 4 points to 1, Shamrocsk point scorer being Eon O’Mahony when a goal was on.
The management, having witnessed another loss, were reasonably happy with the display after experimenting with a few positions. Championship is approaching fast so its time to put the shoulder to the wheel, for everybody.
Team: J. Wilson (one great save), S. Andrews, S. Collins, C. Brady, R. Murphy, C. Kidney, M. Prout, B. Sweeney, A. McCarthy, P. Brady, E. O’Mahony, C. Caffrey, S. Hurley, B. Mulqueen, M. O’Neill. Sub used – S. Keane.
Philip Brady 12, Alan Mac 8, Ronan Murphy
Alan McCarthy 8, Philip Brady 12, Colin Brady, Seanan Collins (right) Action from 11/4/12 in Shanbally
