Ballinhassig ease to victory over Aghada with powerful performance

With the exception of Will Leahy (0-15), Aghada had only two other scores on the board and that was down to their lack of possession over the hour

Sun, 12 Sep, 2021 - 17:10

John Coughlan

Cork PIHC: Ballinhassig 3-24 Aghada 0-17

Ballinhassig eased to a comfortable win against Aghada in the Co-Op Superstores PIHC at Shanbally.

Right from the throw-in, Ballinhassig showed accuracy and physical power as this game was decided long before the final whistle.

With the exception of Will Leahy (0-15), Aghada had only two other scores on the board and that was down to their lack of possession over the hour.

Indeed, if Ballinhassig weren’t giving away soft frees Aghada would have been totally out of the game but they led by six points up to the first water-break.

On the restart Ballinhassig got a deserved breakthrough when Conor Desmond was allowed the required space to drill an unstoppable shot to the corner of the net.

Leahy did manage the last score of the half for Aghada but they trailed 1-12 to 0-7 with only two points coming from play.

It got worse for the east Cork side on the restart as Fintan O’Leary struck a wonderful goal that brought memories back of Ballinhassig’s 2005 final win over the same opposition.

The one plus for Ballinhassig is their strength in depth and Simon O’Neill who was introduced in the 49th minute was on hand to strike a classy goal seven minutes later as he finished with a tally of 1-3.

Although Aghada tried hard over the hour they looked well off the pace and they will have to improve big time for their do or die clash against Kilworth next weekend.

Ballinhassig this season have a good mix of youth and experience but next weekend's clash with Ballincollig will test their progress.

Scorers for Ballinhassig: C Desmond 1-7 (0-4f), S O’Neill 1-3, F O’Leary 1-1, C Tyers 0-4, D O’Sullivan 0-2, J O’Sullivan, G Collins, J O’Callaghan, M Collins, E Cullinane, C Grainger, M Sheehan (0-1 each).

Scorers for Aghada: W Leahy 0-15 (0-13f), C Fleming, D Ryan (0-1 each).

Ballinhassig: P Collins; P O’Leary, K Maguire, M Desmond; J O’Callaghan, M Collins, S McCarthy; M Sheehan, E Finn; G Collins, D O’Sullivan, C Tylers; E Cahalane, C Desmond, F O’Leary.

Subs: C Grainger for F O’Leary (42), S O’Neill for C Tyers (49), C Reynolds for E Finn (49).

Aghada: C O’Shea; D Leahy, J McDonnell, D Collins; M Russell, M McCarthy, D Creedon; T Hartnett, J O’Donoghue; D Ryan, W Leahy, K O’Shea; J O’Hanlon, P O’Neill, J Looney.

Subs: J O’Hanlon for J O’Donoghue (h-t), J Colbert for C Fleming (inj 48).

Referee: C Egan (Glen Rovers).