Praise for Carrig backs who 'stood up very strong when it mattered'
RESOLUTE DEFENCE: Carrigtwohill's Cian O'Riordan battles his way past Cloyne's Eoin Motherway during the Co-Op Superstores Senior A Hurling Championship match in Killeagh. Pic: Howard Crowdy
Carrigtwohill always looked to be reasonably comfortable in this Group C clash in the Co-op Superstores Cork SAHC on Killeagh on Saturday afternoon.
That is of course, until they were made decidedly uncomfortable by an uncompromising Cloyne outfit with ten minutes to go.
James Mulcahy’s third point had just given them a 0-15 to 0-10 lead, they had the wind at their backs and Aaron Walsh Barry was in imperious form in defence.
Then a tussle at the edge of their square was called in favour of Cloyne’s Ian Cahill, Niall O’Neill gave the penalty, Brian O’Shea converted, Brian Walsh added a point and there was just one between them. What was Carrig manager, Frank Flannery thinking?
“I was terrified in ways! I thought we’d left them lingering, and of all crowds, you don’t want to leave Cloyne linger because they could steal a draw or a late win in a shot. But we got our hands on the ball and our backs stood up very strong when it mattered in the last ten minutes.”
That they did, and though they initially hit five wides after O’Shea’s goal, Cloyne weren’t to score again and eventually points from Sean Walsh, Liam Gosnell, Brendan Twomey and the outstanding Mulcahy all but sealed their place in the knockout stages.
Flannery was pleased with the response.
“We’d a good few chances that went astray in the final quarter but the main thing is that we created them. But we did finish strong, and it’s something that we’d worked on all year during the league. In Division 1 or backs were to the wall quite a lot. We got two late draws in the end to stay up in Division 1 so that stood to us again today.”
Cloyne made hay while playing with the wind in the opening half against Fermoy last weekend, but here they failed to make history repeat itself.
O’Shea and Noel Cahill helped them into an early 0-4 to 0-3 lead but the sides were level at 0-5 each at the end of the opening quarter before three successive points from Walsh and Mulcahy’s first score gave Carrig a lead that they were never to surrender.
From there they kept Cloyne at arm’s length, bar the late scare, and they face a Fermoy side that Flannery rates highly in their final game.
“No disrespect to the two teams we’ve played to date but we’ve always earmarked Fermoy as probably the top team in this group. They underperformed against Cloyne, and Cloyne were excellent on the night, but for us this is a top-of-the-table clash in three weeks’ time in Watergrasshill.”
Cloyne’s hopes will be very much alive when they face bottom of the table Mallow, but they will face them without Ian Cahill after he picked up a late red card.
S Walsh (0-9, 0-7 frees), J Mulcahy (0-4), L Gosnell (0-2, 0-1 free) D Murnane, B Twomey, T Hogan, and C O’Riordan (0-1 each)
B O’Shea (1-7, 1-0 pen, 0-5 frees, 0-1 ’65), N Cahill (0-2), M Cahill and B Walsh (0-1 each).
S Devlin; O O’Sullivan, S de Búrca (JC), A Walsh Barry; B Twomey, J Horgan, D Murnane; J McCarthy, P Hogan; C O’Riordan, L Gosnell (JC), T Hogan; S Walsh, L O’Sullivan, J Mulcahy. Subs: S Brennan for McCarthy (inj, 40)
A Walsh; B Minihane, Eoin Motherway, T O’Regan; K Dennehy, S Beausang, D Byrne; C Cahill, Eánna Motherway; J Hallihan, B O’Shea, B Walsh; N Cahill, I Cahill, M Cahill.
E Treacy for M Cahill (47), C O’Sullivan for N Cahill (61).
Niall O’Neill (Midleton).
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