Ballymartle survive late Eire Og rally

(JJ Hurley)

Ballymartle survive late Eire Og rally

Ballymartle 1-17 Eire Og 2-12

Ballymartle clung on to a slender lead to take the spoils against a late Eire Og onslaught in Ballinhassig on Saturday night.

The premier intermediate hurling encounter ignited on 52 minutes as the Muskerry’s talisman Eoin O’Shea crashed a 21-yard free to the Ballymartle net to blow this contest wide open.

Second half substitute and Cork senior footballer, Colm O’Callaghan, had another guilt edged chance to add a third goal, moments later, but his batted shot went just wide of the left-hand post.

With only a goal separating the sides, up stepped Ballymartle’s man of the match Ryan Deasy and Richard Cahalane to steady the ship with points, but Eire Og refused to go away as three additional points left only two between the sides.

Callaghan again had another chance for glory but Darren McCarthy, who was outstanding for the Riverstick-side over the hour, was not going to be beaten a third time.

The opening half had seen five of Ballymartle forwards all hitting the target, with Brian Corry opening their account in the first minutes and despite levelling the contest with Eoin O’ Shea’s first point of the evening, the Muskerry men were rocked by an Eoghan Healy goal on four minutes   

Leading by 1-4 to 0-3, Ballymartle were pegged back on 16 minutes as John Galvin powered a shot to the Ballymartle net, but the Carrigdhoun side  stretched their lead by two as Cillian Lordan and Deasy fired over.

From there to the break Ballymartle outscored their opponents by four points to three but the pick of the scores came from Eire Og’s David Casey, who sent over a brilliant individual point off his left, as the half-time score read 1-10 to 1-1-6.

The opening 15 minutes of the half had both sets of backs on top of their game, as T J Murphy was proving a tower of strength at the heart of the Ballymartle defence, both sides only claimed three points apiece, during the period

Indeed, Ballymartle looked to be out of sight on 47 minutes as Luke O Callaghan hit his second of the night as Ballymartle led comfortably by 1-15 to 1-9, but direction from the line to O’Shea to go for goal- with the close in free- proved inspirational.

However, despite the best efforts of O’ Shea and O’Callaghan, Ballymartle defence held out, and the Riverstick’s two additional points from Deasy and Cahalane were enough to secure the win, despite Eire Og claiming the last three scores of a pulsating last ten minutes.

Scorers for Ballymartle: R Deasy 0-7 (0-6 f), L O’Callaghan 0-4, E Healy 1-0, C Lordan, J Dwyer, D Casey, S Dorney, S Cummins, R Cahalane 0-1 each.

Éire Óg: E O’Shea 1-7 (1-6 f, 0-1 ’65), M Kelleher 1-0, J Galvin 0-3, K Hallissey, D Healy 0-1 each.

BALLYMARTLE: D McCarthy; C Coleman, TJ Murphy, E O’Leary; J Dwyer, R Cahalane, S Corry; F Desmond, S Dorney; S Cummins, E Healy, R Deasy; C Lordan, B Corry, L O’Callaghan.

Subs: P Geary for E Healy (45), D Desmond for S Cummins (50).

ÉIRE ÓG: C Sheehan; C McGoldrick, M Brady, J Mullins; D Dineen, D McCarthy, D Herlihy; E O’Shea, L Considine; J Kelleher, J Galvin, D Casey; D Foley, M Kelleher, K Hallissey. 

Subs: C O’Callaghan for K Hallissey (h-t), D Healy for D Foley (h-t), D Clifford for L Considine (35).

Referee: W Wallis (Aghada).

 Ballymartle and Cork U20 Ryan Deasy, who gave a fine account of himself tonight in the Premier Intermediate Hurling clash with Eire Og