Shamrocks 1-12, Kinsale 0-12
Shamrocks are into the East Board C grade final after this 3 point win over Kinsale in Minane Bridge on Saturday last. Shamrocks can count themselves very lucky to be in the final because for three quarters of this game, Kinsale were the better team and everything seemed to be going wrong for the fancied Shamrocks team. But the team seemed to step up a gear when the finishing line was in sight and rattled over 5 points in a row in the last 10 minutes to seal the win.
The very strong wind tried its best to spoil this game but it blew right across the pitch, negating any advantage for either side. Kinsale were up bigtime for this game and raced into a 0-7 to 0-2 lead after 20 minutes. They were doing all the hurling and Shamrocks were not hurling with any authority at all at this point. The lads body language said it all and its to their credit that they battled out of this funk over the course of the next 45 minutes. They managed to score a great goal 10 minutes before HT and this seemed to lift them a bit but at HT, Shamrocks had a mountain to climb such was the lethargy of the first half display. Kinsale led by 2 at HT.
The second half was mostly Kinsale playing the better hurling for the 20 minutes after HT. Shamrocks bought the lead back to a point, Kinsale stretched it to 4, back to 2 and out to 3 with 12 minutes to go, 0-12 to 1-6. However, Shamrocks managed to get reserves of strenght from somewhere and took over and tipped away at the lead, eventually equalising with 4 minutes to go. They carried that momentum forward and struck 3 more points as time ran out and they were into a final, which is scheduled for September 3rd.
Team: C. Scriven, D. Barry, D. O’Mahony, C. Hayes, J. O’Keeffe, R. Meighan, D. Andrews, S. Flavin, M. Hitchmough, S. Downey, A. O’Grady, C. Hayes. Sub used – C. Murphy
