Erin’s Own never look back after early goals
Inspired by two goals inside the opening seven minutes and further aided by very poor shooting from Carrigtwohill, it was simply a matter of Erin’s Own retaining their consistency and scoring regularly and the league leaders did so in style.
“We had the boys wound up for a good start and in fairness they hurled well throughout the match,” commented manager Martin Bowen.
“We had a few injuries and obviously with a local derby we were fairly concerned about Carrigtwohill, genuinely, because they won a county later than us. We got the two goals early and they had six or seven wides, that’s the difference. It gave us a lot of confidence and obviously they got a bit downhearted.
“We had a lot of younger players coming in and we were trying to balance it out. That’s the promising thing — there was a good spread of scores (from eight different players).”
The Carrigtwohill manager Mick Mahony (father of injured Waterford star Pauric) accepted they had been ‘chasing’ the game after the concession of the two goals.
“We drove a lot of wides early on and you can’t do that in Championship hurling. We just didn’t do ourselves justice and that’s probably the most disappointing thing. If you are beaten by a point or two having played well you can take it, but we didn’t.
“For whatever reason we weren’t on the mark and paid the price for it!”
The potential in the Erin’s Own side was evident after less than two minutes when centre-forward Jack Sheehan powered his way through from the right to goal impressively. And it was notable that Eoghan Murphy scored the other goal, five minutes later, because he was to make a massive contribution through his free-taking.
It yielded 10 points, one more than the total — all from frees, too — from Carrigtwohill’s top scorer Tomás Hogan. Hogan opened the scoring for them in the ninth minute, when they had accumulated six of the 17 wides which undermined their performance.
Between then and the 16th minute, by which time former Cork star Niall McCarthy had begun to make an impact at midfield, they matched Erin’s Own’s total of four points.
But while the difference on the scoreboard reflected the advantage of the two goals, in real terms the winners were much stronger in nearly all aspects of play, specifically in the way they created openings and finished up front.
But for a bit of bad luck, when a low ball from Mossy Carroll came back off the upright, they would have been further in front at half-time than the eight points which separated the sides, 2-11 to 0-9.
In contrast, Carrigtwohill never threatened a goal and regularly found it difficult to penetrate, with Cian O’Connor and Stephen Cronin very effective on the right flank of the Erin’s Own defence.
While encouraged by two especially impressive scores from Daniel O’Mahony and Padraig Hogan before the break and McCarthy’s influence, Carrigtwohill lacked the power in attack to enhance their scoring rate.
And with Eoghan Murphy scoring from a range of angles and distances, their concession of frees only added to their woes.
Noel Furlong was involved at half-back after his interval substitution, while further forward Robbie White came more into the game. Their best chance of a goal fell to White in the 56th minute but he mis-hit his shot off the ground.
At the final whistle, Erin’s Own players and management could take justifiable pride and await the second round with confidence.
E. Murphy (1-10, 0-10 frees); J. Sheehan (1-2); K. Murphy (0-3); A. Bowen and C. O’Callaghan (0-2 each); S. Kelly, M. Collins and S. Murphy (0-1 each).
T. Hogan (0-9 frees); N. McCarthy (0-3); R. White (0-2); P. Hogan (0-1 free) and D. O’Mahony (0-1 each).
S. Bowen; C. O’Connor, C. Dooley, D. Dennehy; S. Cronin, S. Murphy (capt.), C. O’Mahony; S. Kelly, A. Bowen; K. Murphy, J. Sheehan, M. Collins; M. Carroll, E. Murphy, C. O’Callaghan.
R. O’Flynn for Carroll (51); K. Murphy for O’Connor (58).
S. Devlin; P. O’Sullivan, A. Garde, R. Power; S. Forbes, L. O’Sullivan, C. O’Connell; P. Hogan, N. McCarthy; S. Roche, D. O’Mahony, S. Dempsey; R. White, T. Hogan, D. O’Driscoll.
N. Furlong for Roche (second half); M. O’Riordan for O’Mahony (inj. 37).
David Copps (Ballyhea).
