St Michael’s withstand late Kiskeam charge

After a closely contested hour in Mallow, St Michael’s held out for a narrow one-point win over Kiskeam in the opening round of the Cork Premier IFC.

But they had to withstand an anxious few moments at the end as Kiskeam went in search of the equalising score. It wasn’t to be for the Duhallow side and they will now have to contend with Kinsale in the back door.

Duhallow started brighter with Niall Cronin and Micky Herlihy helping them into a 0-3 to 0-1 lead. And as St Michael’s were dealing with losing midfielder Shane O’Sullivan to injury, Robert Carroll hit the net for Kiskeam. The scoreboard was not good reading for the Blackrock men. However, they soon gained a foothold around the middle especially through the high fielding of William Kennedy and began to run at Kiskeam forcing them to foul. And with free-takers Eric Hegarty and Paul Cronin landing a couple of points each they were soon only one behind. Credit too custodian Brian Kavanagh who made a point-blank save from Billy Dennehy to ensure the margin remained at the minimum on the short whistle, 1-3 to 0-5 in Kiskeam’s favour.