AGHADA HURLING AND FOOTBALL CLUB

Another hurling 1st round lost by Aghada after defeat to St. Catherines in a rain swept Dungourney on Saturday last. The conditions were shocking as the game was played in a steady downpour for the hour and it didn’t help the hurling on view. There was very little between the sides in either half, possession wise anyway, but in the end St. Catherines were that bit more economical with their shooting up front. This was never going to be a score fest and although Aghada didn’t score for 17 minutes, their opponents still had only 2 points on the board at this stage. Aghada, through Finbarr Day, hit 3 points in the opening half, all from frees earned by Eoin Healy, Paudie Wall and Alan Creedon. A couple of other placed ball opportunities went a begging but after playing against the wind Aghada were in a good position at half time trailing by only 5 points to 3.

St. Catherines came flying out of the blocks on resumption and it took a fine safe from John O’Brien (who had a good game between the sticks) to deny them a certain goal. Catherines were on top early in the second half, but with Andrew O’Donoghue, Alan Morrissey and Stephen Gilroy all playing well in the Aghada full back line, they kept the scores conceded down to a minimum. Still Catherines had a run of points between the 10th and 20th minutes and opened up a bit of daylight between the two sides. Considering both sides were evenly matched the lead was never insurmountable on paper, but on the other hand you just couldn’t see where Aghada were going to get their scores from. Aghada had only 3 points to show for their efforts in this half also – another Finbarr free and two Cian Fleming points from play after he was moved to the forward line from wing back. Aghada needed a goal however, but after Day saw a great effort well saved in the 1st couple of minutes of the game, Aghada never again came even close to threatening to raise a green flag. To their credit, Aghada kept on battling to the very end, but couldn’t find the scores necessary to get them back in contention and finished up second best by 4 points. Aghada team and Scorers – John O’Brien, Andrew O’Donoghue, Alan Morrissey, Stephen Gilroy, Cian Fleming (0-2), Conor Rice, Richard Condon, Michael Russell, Paudie Wall, Shane Wall, Sean O’Donoghue, Alan Creedon, Finbarr Day(0-4f’s), Eoin Healy, David Condon. Subs Used Evan Kennedy.