Matthew Bradley and Shane Tarrant fire Aghabullogue to victory

Cloughduv scored two goals in the opening 10 minutes

File picture

Cork IAHC: Aghabullogue 2-20 Cloughduv 2-9 

Aghabullogue emerged victorious from this all Muskerry group stage affair in the Cork IAHC against Cloughduv.

It was Aghabullogue who opened the scoring through some crisp early scores by Matthew Bradley, although Cloughduv responded in the right manner, when Brian Verling blasted the ball home impressively from a Tony Dineen pass.

Shane Tarrant put Aghabullogue back in front, before Cloughduv got a second goal, when Mark Walsh broke free and fired the ball clinically to the back of the net, to leave it at 2-0 to Aghabullogue’s 0-5 after just 10 minutes.

Walsh was to score a Cloughduv point moments later, however, it was Aghabullogue that were to burst into life for the remainder of the opening half.

Paudie Twomey found the back of the net after racing in well, before Dano Dineen and the on-fire Bradley also slotted points for the Coachford club.

Cloughduv added to their tally through points from Aidan Murphy and Brian Verling, but Aghabullogue ended the opening 30 minutes of play with another Dineen score, as they led 1-11 to 2-3 at half-time.

Bradley got another cracking Aghabullogue score early in the second half, before a brace of Walsh points and a Verling free for Cloughduv reduced the gap to two.

But when the chips were down and the game reached its latter stages, it was Aghabullogue that had the greater stomach for the fight.

Tarrant maintained his composure and slotted over a succession of frees and a point from play, while Dano Dineen also converted a cool effort. Cloughduv ended with 14 men after a second yellow, before Aghabullogue netted through a finely taken Tadhg Bradley goal.

Scorers for Aghabullogue: S Tarrant 0-10 (6 frees), M Bradley 0-6 (1 free), D Dineen 0-3, T Bradley, P Twomey 1-0 each, I Barry-Murphy 0-1. 

Scorers for Cloughduv: M Walsh 1-4, B Verling 1-3 (0-2 frees), A Murphy 0-2.

Aghabullogue: F Foley; C Feury, A Barry-Murphy, J Corkery; M Dennehy, N Barry-Murphy, S O’Connell; D Dineen, S Feury; B Casey, M Bradley, S Tarrant; J Buckley, P Twomey, I Barry-Murphy.

Subs: D Quinlan for Dennehy (15, inj), T Bradley for Casey (45).

Cloughduv: J Buckley; J Moynihan, B Ahern, P Buckley; D O’Leary, M Verling, T Dineen; M Walsh, L Kelleher; A Twomey, E Clifford, A Murphy; D Corkery, S O’Connor, B Verling.

Subs: W Ahern for Corkery (HT), K Walsh for Twomey (48), M Dunne for O’Leary (55). 

Referee: Alan O’Connor (Ballygarvan).