Boherbue snatch late draw in Cork opener

ALL SQUARE: Boherbue's Andrew O'Connor wins the ball from Mitchelstown's Killian Roche and Cormac Hyland during the Bon Secours Cork IAFC at Mourne Abbey. Picture; Eddie O'Hare.

Cork IAFC

Boherbue 0-10 Mitchelstown 1-7

A late free from Andrew O’Connor rescued what could prove a valuable point for Boherbue in this opening night IAFC clash in Mourneabbey.

If it was the first game of this year's Cork football championships, it didn't suffer a lack of bite and needle for all that between the north Cork sides - especially in a tense second half.

Mitchelstown went in 1-4 to 0-6 in front at the interval, courtesy of a slightly fortuitous goal from veteran Shane Beston, when his 20m free dipped under the crossbar and into the net on 15 minutes. It was a crucial score for Mitchelstown at a time when they were down to fourteen men with centre forward James Sheehan off the pitch after being shown a black card by referee Cathal McAllister. 

Conversely, the goal, and its timing, was a big blow to the Duhallow men, though they responded excellently to the setback, and took a firm grip of the second quarter. They strung together a necklace of scores before the break, David O’Connor’s free taking accuracy important in that regard, to ensure they only went in at the interval trailing by a point.

With the increasing intensity in the second half came an increased amount of errors on the ball and in front of goal. Neither side will be too pleased with their shot selection, sharing eighteen wides in total. However not all the failed attempts were down to profligacy - Boherbue keeper Dermot Cremin made a pair of cracking saves from Mithcelstown to keep his side in the game - they key one coming when Darragh Flynn was clean through and tried to smash it low past the keeper. Cremin had other ideas.

James Sheehan, black-carded in the first half, paid the price for a further discretion in the final 10 minutes when a 52-minute yellow for him reduced the Avondhu men to 14. The dismissal offered the chink of light that Boherbue needed and as they pressed forward, they won the free which O'Connor converted to take a point into their next group game.  

Scorers for Mitchelstown: S Beston (1-1), S Cahill (0-3, 1f), K Roche, J Sheehan, D Flynn (all 0-1).

Scorers for Boherbue: D O’Connor (0-3, frees), G O’Sullivan (0-3), A O’Connor (0-2, frees), CJ O’Sullivan (0-1).

MITCHELSTOWN: L Hanna; L Finn, F Herlihy, K Roche; J O’Sullivan, J Mullins, C Hyland; R Donegan, S Walsh; D Flynn, J Sheehan, K Fox; D Reidy Price, S Cahill, S Beston.

Subs: P Magee for D Reidy Price (37), S O’Sullivan for R Donegan (38).

BOHERBUE: D Cremin; M O’Gorman, D O’Sullivan, P Daly; D Buckley, A O’Connor, C O’Keefe; G O’Sullivan, B Murphy; K Cremin, D O’Connor, CJ O’Sullivan; L Moynihan, J Corkery, B Herlihy.

Subs: A Murphy for B Herlihy (37), N Murphy for P Daly (54), A Kenouche for G O’Sullivan (54).

Referee: Cathal McAllister (Aghada).