Sharper Carrigaline make no mistake

Carrigaline 1-12 Milford 1-6

Despite the difficult conditions, Carrig hurled with great purpose and again owed much to their excellent defence where Philip Aherne played the proverbial blinder at wing back, ably assisted by James Murphy, Cian O’Mahony and Kevin O’Driscoll.

Team captain Ger Cooney and Peter Murphy shaded midfield, while, in attack, county senior footballer Nicholas Murphy again showed his worth with a splendid goal. Brendan O’Driscoll showed his value as a free-taker with three points and Brendan Hogan and Brian Irwin also made significant contributions to the win.

Milford couldn’t have asked for a better start and led 0-2 to 0-0 after three minutes thanks to county minor Eoin Dillon.

Unfortunately, they failed to maintain their early promise and once Carrigaline settled, the north Cork lads were always fighting an uphill battle.

Carrig were level after 10 minutes with two excellent points by Brendan Hogan before going on a scoring spree which yielded 1-3 without reply and left Milford struggling alarmingly in most sectors of the field.

Looking to improve they made a couple of telling switches. Mike Morrissey came to centre-forward and Gerry O’Brien went to midfield and when John Cremin rattled the Carrig net in the 27th minute, their first score for 25 minutes, the Blues were just three points adrift at the interval, 1-5 to 1-2.

There was a little more urgency in Milford on the changeover and Morrissey reduced the deficit still further with a point in the 32nd minute. And when the usually reliably Brendan Hogan drove a 20-metre free from in front of the posts wide, Carrig began to struggle.

However, Milford couldn’t take advantage. And it was the men from the Carrigdhoun division who had the facility to step up a couple of gears.

Philip Aherne continued to hurl superbly at wing back and with Nicholas Murphy winning a lot of possession at centre-forward the points began to flow for Carrig.

At the three-quarter stage they led 1-8 to 1-4 but for all their superiority they couldn’t quite shake off a dogged Milford side and when Gerry O’Brien hit a great point from midfield it looked as if they would make a match of it.

However, Carrig’s hurling was always that bit sharper and points by Brendan O’Driscoll and Ger Cooney had them six to the good with five minutes remaining.

In one last throw of the dice, Milford moved centre-back Ronan Geary to full-forward but to no avail as a resolute Carrig defence held firm for their first win at this level.

Scorers: Carrigaline: B. O’Driscoll (0-4, 0-3 frees), N. Murphy (1-1), B. Hogan (0-3, 0-1 free), B. Irwin (0-2), M. O’Sullivan, G. Cooney (0-1 each). Milford: G. Cremin (1-0), E. Dillon (0-3, 0-2 frees, 0-1 65), M. Morrissey (0-2, 0-1 free), J. O’Brien (0-1).

CARRIGALINE: E. O’Sullivan, J. Hoey, J. Murphy, C. O’Mahony, G. Harrington, K. O’Driscoll, P. Aherne, G. Cooney, P. Murphy, M. O’Sullivan, N. Murphy, B. O’Driscoll, B. Irwin, D. Fleming, B. Hogan. Subs: C. Corcoran for Fleming.

MILFORD; J. O’Gorman, J. O’Connor, D. O’Leary, P. O’Brien, J. Leonard, R. Geary, M. Cremin, M. O’Brien, E. Dillon, M. O’Connell, J. O’Brien, N. Geary, S. Curtin, M. Morrissey, J. Cremin. Sub: R. Villiers for O’Connell, P. O’Regan for N. Geary.

Referee: D. Kirwan (Éire Óg).