Castlehaven dig deep to edge Aghada

Last season’s finalists Castlehaven won their opening battle for supremacy in the Cork senior football championship in Newcestown yesterday afternoon after a fiercely contested tie against East Cork outfit Aghada.

Castlehaven trailed 0-5 to 0-4 at the break as they struggled to stamp their authority on the game with Aghada producing some excellent passages of play despite playing into a hefty breeze. However Castlehaven’s play improved upon the resumption and by the 40th minute they were level at 0-8 apiece, before then kicking for home in the final quarter as they outscored their opponents by 0-4 to 0-1.

“Overall we’re just happy to have got through it,” outlined selector Niall Cahalane afterwards. “It was a tough battle but with first round games, you’re always going into the unknown. I thought for a while we were flat but we played reasonably well into the breeze. We still had a lot of raw wides as well and we created goal chances but didn’t take them. We probably should have got a penalty though when our corner-forward came across the square with a man up on his back for about five yards. But we’ll take the win.”