Mitchelstown 1-18 Rockchapel 1-08
Mitchelstown intermediate footballers travelled back to Churchtown last Sunday evening knowing they faced a huge task.
They had a tremendous battle last year in the quarter-final with the same opposition so when the draw was made, minds were quickly focussed on the task ahead. The pitch was in excellent condition, weather warm but very muggy.
Mitchelstown started the game well and in the opening 5 minutes had all the possession. Some early wides were quickly put aside with Shane Beston opening the score in the 3rd min, quickly followed by Mark Keane who kicked over a delightful point a minute later.
Rockchapel responded with a point in the 6th minute to open their account, then an excellent individual point by Sean Walsh in the 8th min, quickly followed by two very good scores by Jim Sheehan, saw Mitchelstown lead 6 to 2 after 10 minutes.
A Cathail O’Mahony point in the 12min followed by a superb score from all of 40 yards out on the left by Michael Walsh, had town in a good position in the 19th min.
A great move involving Shane Beston and Shane Cahill resulted in the ball hitting the crossbar but it was quickly picked up and kicked over the bar by Cathail O’Mahony. Mitchelstown was completely dominant all over the pitch and in the 23rd min a well worked move was brilliantly dispatched to the Rockchapel net by Shane Beston.
Points by Cathail O’Mahony and Michael Walsh had town well ahead approaching half-time, 1-11 to 0-4 but Rockchapel are a very dogged championship side and they raised their game approaching half-time and netted a superb goal to leave 7 points between the sides.
Rockchapel started the 2nd half the stronger. They fired two bad wides in the opening couple of minutes. Mitchelstown took their chances, points by Michael Walsh and Cathail O’Mahony had the lead stretched to 9 in the opening 10 minutes of the 2nd half but back came Rockchapel with 3 points to reduce the gap to 6.
Mitchelstown responded well, a Shane Cahill point was followed by a superb point by Sean O’Sullivan to finally put an end to the Rockchapel challenge. The remaining 10 minutes were hard as Rockchapel tried. Mitchelstown held them at bay to progress to the quarter-final where they will meet Youghal. No date fixed as yet.
Selectors and players will be very happy with the result as it was very tricky assignment and won’t be getting carried away as they face a very tough challenge in the quarter-final.
Special thanks to all our supporters who travelled back to Churchtown last Sunday, well done and appreciated by all the players and mentors.
Team: L Hanna, G Carroll, F Herlihy, Pa Magee, S O’Sullivan (0-1), D Dineen, Pa Molloy, M Keane, L O’Flynn, M Walsh (0-4), S Beston (1-02), S Walsh (0-02), J Sheehan (0-2), S Cahill (0-1), C O’Mahony (0-5). Subs Dylan Price 43rd min, S Fox 48th min, O Burke 55th min.
Lotto
Numbers drawn: 1, 11, 15, 27. No winner €50 Rose Keogh, €50 Barry Kiely, €50 Skip Boland. Next week’s jackpot €9,200, venue Tod’s Bar 8.30pm.
Sympathy
We wish to send our condolences to the Keane, Coleman and Devlin families on their recent bereavements.
