Midleton take early control as wasteful Bishopstown pay the penalty

Midleton 2-16 Bishopstown 0-12: There was only going to be one winner from this first-round Cork SHC clash in Páirc Uí Rinn yesterday and yet it wasn’t so much a case of 2013 champions Midleton being comfortably in control all through, more an issue of how closer Bishopstown might have been had they not accumulated 17 wides.

Selector Martin Hayes agreed with this viewpoint, stating: “it was disappointing, but on the positive side, we did play well in periods, we owned the ball for periods and competed physically. We stayed the course but when it’s a quality team like Midleton and you have 17 wides - not from 80 yards but from within 40/50 yards - you’re going to struggle.”

Midleton manager Gerry Wallace accepted Town’s wastage of possession was a key factor in determining the result. “In the first-half if they had been a bit luckier – they had 11 wides to our seven – it might have been closer at half-time,” he commented.