Junior Football championship Aghada 2-10 V Castlelyons 2-9
Monday last in Lisgoold saw the Junior A side in action in their first round, and unlike the seniors they survived a late comeback to win the game by the narrowest of margins. A slow start by Aghada saw them 2 points down before centre forward Ken O’Keeffe opened Aghada’s account with a good point on 8 mins. Corner forward Christy O’Shea was then put through by a superb Colin Scanlon pass to tie the game up a minute later. An even better Kenneth O’Keeffe point gave Aghada the lead for the first time on 10 mins. Castlelyons were awarded a penalty after 14 minutes, which they duly crashed home to the back of Dereck Bowlers net. Aghada responded with 2 points, a great individual point from the lively Conor Hickey and Christy's second of the match. On 22 mins Aghada were back in front when Ger Melvin pointed a free. Back game Castlelyons with a brace of their own and they led by a point coming up to half time. On the stoke of half time Declan Morrissey was upended in the penalty area and Melvin tapped his penalty home to give Aghada a 2 point lead at the interval.
Good approach play by Hickey and Tony Wall set up Decky Mor for the 1st point of the second half. Castlelyons now went on a scoring spree and hit 3 points from play. It could have been worse for Aghada only for a last ditch block by Stephen Cashman to deny the opposition a goal. Aghada were awarded another peno after Tony was bowled over in the square. This time Melvin blasted the kick to the back of the net. More points from Castlelyons kept them very much in what was now an entertaining game. Now however it was Aghada's turn to kick 3 unanswered points from play courtesy of Tony,Nigel Berry and Richard Good. With time almost out Aghada were 4 points clear. Castlelyons battled back however and managed to conjure up a goal despite the goalscorer being marked by at least 50 Aghada lads! Aghada desperately needed to win the resulting kick out and Declan Devoy knocked it down nicely to Michael Morrissey who cleared the ball up field and with that came the final whistle. Aghada were through to the next round. Team & Scorers:

D.Bowler,

D.Hanlon,D.Lee,S,Cashman,

M.Morrissey,C.Scanlon,J.Wall,

D.Devoy,N.Berry(0-1),

C.Hickey(0-2),K.O’Keeffe(0-2),D.Morrissey(0-1),

G.Melvin(2-1),My.Lewis, C.O’Shea(0-2)

. Subs used: T.Wall(0-1),E.Cotter,R.Good(0-1).

It was a case of 3 strikes and your out for Aghada on a bad weekend results wise for the footballers. On Saturday the 3rd team went down badly to Lisgoold in division 1 of the East Cork Junior leagues.

Aghada used a mostly U21 outfit to represent the1st team for the clash with Castlemartyr in the same competition. Aghada started very slowly in this game and found themselves 1-2 to no score down after 10 mins. Centre forward Stephen O’Keeffe opened Aghada’s account on 15 mins when he pointed a free after John Connolly had been fouled. Castlemartyr were still well on top however and led at half time 1-5 v 0-2.
It was Aghada who the started the 2nd half the better and full forward Connolly had scored 1-1 inside 10 mins to reduce the deficit to just 3 points. Castlemartyr kicked their way into a 4 point lead mid through the 2nd half before Stephen O’Keeffe , who was easily Aghada’s best player on the day, kicked 2 super points and with time running out there was only 2 points between the sides. Castlemartyr rallied again however, and ran out deserved victors on a 1-9 v 1- 5 scoreline. Aghada team and scorers -

B.Wall,

D.Hanlon,D.Lee, D.Kearney,

R.Good,J.Wall,F.O’Brien,

C.Hickey(0-1),D.Morrissey,

Paudie.Wall, S.O’Keeffe (0-3),S.Gilroy,

A. Hartnett,J,Connolly(1-1),M.Day.

Subs Used- A.Connolly,L.Curtin.