Goals key as Blackwater topple Tulla in Harty Cup opener

The goals came from Jack Twomey and Stephen Murphy.

The Blackwater roars at full-time emphasised the belief an opening round win can do for any school. Pic: INPHO

Harty Cup: Blackwater Community School, Lismore 2-16 St. Joseph’s Tulla 0-20 

Goals at both the start and end of the opening half gave Blackwater Community School, Lismore a hard-fought victory over St. Joseph’s, Tulla in their Harty Cup Group 3 clash at Kilmallock.

Those goals, which came from Jack Twomey and Stephen Murphy, always had the Clare side chasing and despite coming within touching distance on a few occasions, the winners always had Tulla at arm’s length.

With tough tests to come against Cashel CS and Scoil na mBraithre, Charleville, the early two points put the Waterford men in a good position to come out of the group.

This contest wasn’t without its talking points, the first of which arrived before throw-in, as both sides wore a predominantly white kit. 

The only notable distinction was that Blackwater had black shorts but for the observer, it made this exciting game a little more challenging than it ordinarily should’ve been.

The other moment worth mulling over was the scoreboard. Limerick official Seán Carey spent a great deal of time discussing the half-time score with both managements, after a discrepancy arose. 

While this reporter had Blackwater three ahead, 2-9 to 0-12, it was eventually agreed with all parties that it was 2-10 to 0-12.

While that exchange was polite and somewhat subdued, the action was at times stop-start as the free count mounted against both sides. 

There was plenty of cynical fouling, particularly on behalf of the winners who protected their goal with great success – allowing Matthew Corbett to profit with successful frees for Tulla.

The game was less than a minute old when Twomey whipped to the net. Initially looking short of road and out of options, he pulled the ball home from close range as his angle tightened. 

This eclipsed the opening score from Cathal Culloo and from there Lismore enjoyed their best spell.

They’d opened up a 1-4 to 0-2 lead inside eight minutes, including points from Joseph McDonnell, Murphy and a brace of frees from Ben Cummins. They appeared to catch the Clare men sleeping.

The gap was out to eight when James Hickey added a fourth point in a row for his side but then a run of six without reply brought the gap back to just two. 

Four of these were from the accurate Corbett, while Liam Murphy and Aodhán O’Driscoll also bisected the uprights.

Nearing half-time the sucker punch that Tulla didn’t need arrived. A cutting run through by Twomey saw him stopped, however a very kind bounce of the ball fell to Stephen Murphy who dispatched to the net with power to reopen the margin.

The second half was one which Blackwater always had some control over, but never really looked like dead certain winners. 

They had points from Cummins and Murphy to pull clear but a combination of place balls from Corbett and Jerry O’Connor kept Terance Fahy’s youngsters in the fight.

The final two scores came from Corbett, two more tricky frees on the soft south Limerick sod, but there was little time for another score or two which would have rescued the draw. 

In the end, the powerful running of Lismore won out, for whom McDonnell, Cummins and Brian Bourke shone. Their roars at full-time emphasised the belief an opening round win can do for any school.

Scorers for Blackwater Community School, Lismore: B Cummins 0-9 (8f); S Murphy 1-3; J Twomey 1-0; J Hickey 0-2; J McDonnell, C Lineen 0-1 each.

Scorers for St. Joseph’s Tulla: M Corbett 0-13 (11f, 1 ‘65); J O’Connor 0-3 (2f); C Culloo, L Murphy, A O’Driscoll, D White 0-1 each.

Blackwater Community School, Lismore: B Murphy (Cois Bhride); S Barry (Lismore), D O’Brien (Ballysaggart), C Lynch (St. Oliver’s); B Bourke (Ballyduff Upper), J McDonnell (Cois Bhríde), R Kavanagh (St. Oliver’s); H Quann (Lismore), J Hickey (Modeli; C Lineen (Lismore), J Twomey (Cappoquin/Affane), A Murphy (Tallow); B Cummins (Lismore), S Murphy (Tallow), A Cummins (Lismore) 

Sub: C Nicholson (Cappoquin/Affane) for Murphy (46).

St. Joseph’s Tulla: J Lovett (Broadford); PJ McCarthy (Clooney-Quin), F O’Gara (Clooney-Quin), E Cooney (Tulla); N Corbett (Broadford), R Hayes (Tulla), D Browne (Clooney-Quin); M Corbett (Clooney-Quin), M Vaughaun (Broadford); C Leamy (Clooney-Quin); D White (Clooney-Quin), C Culloo (Tulla); A O’Driscoll (Broadford), J O’Connor (Clooney-Quin), L Murphy (O’Clallaghan’s Mills).

Subs: J Moran (Broadford) for Culloo (48); M Nolan for O’Driscoll (58).

Referee: Sean Carey (Ahane, Limerick)