Ballincollig lead throughout to beat Mallow by seven in PIHC round 1

Danny Dwyer, Ballincollig, hurling manager.

Co-Op Superstores PIHC Round 1: Ballincollig 2-19 Mallow 2-12  

Ballincollig breezed past Mallow at a blustery Ballyanly on Sunday afternoon, securing their first win at this stage of Championship competition since 2017.

The victors were well worth the spoils in this PIHC game as they dominated their opponents right from the first whistle, never trailing over the 60+ minutes of action.

Ballincollig manager Danny Dwyer was never likely to get overly excited with the result this early in the season however when questioned he was less than thrilled with many aspects of his side’s play.

“The name of the game is to try and get a win but there were a lot of things from that you couldn’t be happy with” he said at the full time whistle.” “I was pleased with the spread of scorers (eight). We did use the ball better against the wind in the second half but we did have too many wides.

“We just seemed to be taking pot-shots from ridiculous angles but as I said we have got over the first round and we have a huge game in a couple of weeks (Éire Óg) and that will be a different kettle of fish – but despite all I said we will take some positives from today.” Steve Wills was potent from wing forward for the visitors with Pearse Morris, Cian O’Driscoll and Sean O’Neill also potent from play – the latter pairing bagging Ballincollig’s goals on 44 and 46 minutes respectively.

Tadgh O’Connell was also impressive in the middle with James Dwyer another to impress throughout.

For Mallow, effort can’t be questioned all over the field but Sean Hayes was their main man throughout – bagging seven points and plucking plenty from the sky.

From the off, Mallow looked under pressure here as Ballincollig, led in the scoring stakes by Wills at 10 were comfortable – Mallow struggled to get clean ball all game.

Despite conditions, Ballincollig still managed 11 points in the first half to Mallow’s disappointing tally of five with both sides having far too many wides (seven each before the break with Ballincollig just shading that stat in the second with another five to Mallow’s four).

The second half was mainly about Ballincollig as they managed the game well and looked to be out of site after the three quarter mark thanks to the majors from O’Neill and O’Driscoll but Mallow battled on and despite never looking like pulling this one back, they did manage a brace of majors themselves, half time sub Simon Leneghan landed a goal and a sideline point with Paul Lyons also raising green – too little too late however as Ballincollig take the points, the glory and the momentum into Round 2 

Scorers for Ballincollig: S Wills 0-6 (two frees); P Morris 0-5 (three frees); S O’Neill, C O’Driscoll 1-1 each; T O’Connell, J Dwyer 0-2 each; D O’Sullivan, A Wills 0-1 each.

Scorers for Mallow: S Hayes 0-7 (five frees); P Lyons, S Leneghan (0-1 sl) 1-1 each; M Tobin 0-2; frees; D Sheehan 0-1.

BALLINCOLLIG: J Lenihan; R O’Donovan, C O’Sullivan, C Moore; D O’Sullivan, F Denny, T O’Connell; j Dwyer, B Coleman; S Wills, B Keating, S O’Neill; A Wills, P Morris, C O’Driscoll. 

Subs: B Dore for T O’Connell (bs) (14 rev 16); B Dore for B Coleman (47).

MALLOW: P Buckley; S Copps, P Healy, R Sheehan; B Kingston, D Moynihan, K Sheehan; P Lyons, S O’Callaghan; M Kelleher, S Hayes, F O’Neill; M Tobin, G Linehan, D Sheehan. 

Subs: B Taylor for R Sheehan (bs) (23 rev 26), S Leneghan for S O’Callaghan (Half Time), B Murphy for K Sheehan (38), D Hayes for F O’Neill (50).

Referee: B Murphy (Carrigtwohill).