The Avondhu

Vital comeback for a share of the spoils

On Sunday evening we played Fermoy in the group B second round of the Hibernian Hotel junior A championship.

The first 15 minutes were a combination of dreadful stuff by us and excellent work by Fermoy and it was unbelievable to think that at the first water break we were 9 points down with only 1 score on the board. The remainder of the match looked bleak to say the least, but in fairness to the lads they dug deep got back into the game and either team could have taken the full points at the end.

Ballygiblin 0-16 Fermoy 2-10

Fermoy started with intent and had 3 wides in as many minutes while we saw the wind hold up our opening effort and the keeper was able to take possession and clear.

Fermoy opened the scoring on the 4th minute when a short puck out found a Fermoy man and he happily sent the ball back over the bar and they added a further point from a free in the middle of the field. We would see another shot go short before we opened our scoring with a pointed free on the 21 for our only score of the first 15 minutes.

Fermoy were crowding our forward line and we were finding it hard to win clean possession, yet at the other end they were pulling out wide exposing our backline and they pointed another from play before they got their first goal.

A long ball into the full forward who managed to get a flick on past Christopher, a question mark over whether he was already in the square, but the goal stood and we then racked up 2 wides before things went from bad to worse 3 minutes later when Fermoy worked a clearance through their defence and a lovely ball found a free man with only our goalie to beat.

Christopher was quick off his line but the ball was flicked in and Fermoy finished off an epic first quarter with a pointed free leaving a score Ballygiblin 0-01 to 2-04.

It was hard to see how we were going to get ourselves back into contention, but it was all Ballygiblin in the next period as we outscored Fermoy 6 points to 1. We had two quick points on the board on the restart with Darragh Flynn winning some dirty possession before being fouled and Ryan Donegan being upended after receiving a clearance from Sean O’Sullivan.

Darragh added a further point from play after more good work from Ryan. On the 25th minute we won a short puckout and Dylan Sheehan gave a pass to Darragh who was fouled on the 21 metre line, he decided to chance going for a goal, but with was easily dealt with and we were slow to follow up so the ball was cleared.

Dean Barry added another from play after he caught a great high ball and seconds later, we had the deficient down to 5 when Mark Keane cleared our lines and Dylan under pressure won a great aerial ball and was fouled for Darragh to slot over.

We continued to work hard and on the stroke of half-time Mark Keane had a fabulous long-range point after good work by Sean and Darragh.

Fermoy would finish the half with another goal chance similar to the first, but Christopher was alert to deal with the flick on this occasion and eventually a free would see Fermoy getting their only score of that quarter leaving 4 between them at half-time - Ballygiblin 0-07 to Fermoy 2-05

A GREAT AND DETERMINED COMEBACK

We continued where we left off in the second half and Joseph O’Sullivan won possession under pressure before pointing, as we continued to eat into the Fermoy lead and we had it down to a single point after Fermoy had 2 wides, both our points from placed balls the first after Michael Lewis was fouled bursting from defence.

The second a goal chance when Mark Keane cleared from our defence after moving to midfield, Dylan plucked the ball from the sky with his man tightly marking him and managed to get a pass off to the onrushing Joseph, but the Fermoy defender made a vital interception and we eventually earned a free in.

Fermoy responded with another pointed free before we again pointed after Mark won the puck out and turned and scored. We could easily have taken the lead, but were unlucky with 2 quick wides with possession hard to come by with scrums as players tackled for the ball. We swapped pointed frees Mark being blatantly fouled and Fermoy finished the quarter with another free after we gave away a silly one at midfield. Ballygiblin 0-12 Fermoy 2-08 at the water break.

Fermoy then had it back to a 3-point game on the resumption winning possession from their side-line and pointing.

We reduced it to 2 from a free and Darragh was so unlucky not to hit the net on the 21st minute when a great ball from Ryan found Joseph who passed across to Darragh, the Fermoy keeper was off his line and we all held our breath as he tried to flick the ball over him but unfortunately it went narrowly over the bar. We again struggled to take the lead despite 2 more chances only to see our efforts go wide.

Fermoy got their final score of the game on the 26th minute to lead 2-10 to 0-14 as we headed for the final minutes and they had another wide shortly afterwards.

We then put only 1 between us after Aidan Donegan was fouled with ball in hand and as we headed for injury time a great clearance from Darragh found Mark one on one with the fullback, Fermoy were taking no chances and dragged him down and we took the sensible option and pointed to level the game at the death.

Overall a great and determined comeback, but a few too many players were below par, and our first touch left us down on numerous occasions. Of course, our opening 15 minutes meant we were always in an uphill battle to get back into the game.

We now have a vital game against Araglin in our final round to try and get out of the group. Araglin after 2 losses can’t progress to the quarter final stage, but a win for them could knock us out depending on the result from the Killavullen v Fermoy game.

Team: C Noonan, C O’Brien, F Herlihy, B O’Gorman, J Lewis, B Coffey, M Lewis, R Donegan, S O Sullivan, D Barry (0-01), D Flynn (0-12 10F), D Sheehan, J O Sullivan (0-01), M Keane (0-02), A Donegan. Subs J O’Donoghue, D Lynch, O Burke, S Barrett, J Finn, N Fitzgerald, K Bowles, S Lane, S Doyle, S Doherty, K Doherty and J Crotty.

FIXTURES

Junior A championship group B round 3 on October 10th at 14.00 in Kilworth v Araglin.

SYMPATHIES

The club would like to extend their condolences to the Mulcahy/ Feeney and Dole family and friends on the death of Leish and Mary.

SPORT

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2021-09-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://avondhu.pressreader.com/article/283068417457757

The Avondhu (Ireland)