Ballymartle 5-16, Shamrocks 0-7
Once again Ballymartle gave Shamrocks a lesson in how to play hurling at a frozen Shanbally on Tuesday evening last. It was eerily similar to last years championship game between the sides.
The visitors played with the strong biting breeze in the first half and actually put the game to bed inside the first 12 minutes with a blistering scoring burst. They scored points from all angles and then the goals began to follow and there was an ocean of a gap between their level of hurling and that of the home side. The score at this stage was 2-8 to 0-0.
The scoring rate slackened off a bit in the lead up to half time as Shamrocks got more stuck in and made more of a game of it. Seanán Collins struck over a beauty into the wind but it was just a sporadic moment in an otherwise first half from hell – half time score was Ballymartle 3-13, Shamrocks 0-3.
Shamrocks fought for pride in the second half; they changed the team right around did make it a bit more interesting but never threathened even one goal while Bally tagged on a few majors at the other end. A sharp looking Stephen O’Neill and Seanán Collins scored the second points for Shamrocks.
Hurling in Shamrocks needs lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of hard work.
Team: M. O’Neill, M. Prout, C. Brady, D. Hayes, J. O’Driscoll, S. Andrews, J. Tuohy, D. O’Neill, F. O’Neill, C. Kidney, A. McCarthy, J. Brady, D. O’Sullivan, S. Collins, J. Browne. Sub used – C. O’Grady, S. O’Neill.
