East Cork U21 B Football Championship Group 1 Round 1 in Carrigtwohill on Saturday,  18th November 

Carrigtwohill  1.12

Glenville  5.04

This was the fourth fixture for this Round 1 game, with three previous postponements.  With Carrig having beaten Erin’s Own (2-13 to 2-08) and Erin’s Own overcoming Glenville (4-06 to 0-14), a four point loss or better would see Carrig advance to the final.  (Bride Rovers withdrew from the competition.)

Carrigtwohill defended the Carrig Downs goal in the first half, with the aid of the breeze.  Daniel Murnane opened the scoring for Carrig in the third minute when he executed a ‘one-two’ with Seán Walsh from a free and lofted a fine effort between the posts from the right wing.  Seán Brennan drove out of defence with the ball, layed it off and ended up in the forward line to receive it back and pop it to Sean Walsh who kicked a super score from almost 40m.  Glenville then struck for their first goal but Carrig responded well when Walsh supplied Murnane and he doubled his tally with another long range angled kick.  Daniel Nolan’s hard defensive work resulted in Seán Walsh again gaining possession and finding Daniel Murnane who was on target for the third time from the right wing.  On the quarter hour mark, Glenville struck for their second goal to go two points clear (0-4 to 2-0).

Over the next ten minutes, Carrigtwohill added three pointed frees, all from the right boot of Murnane to go a point clear.  Justin Oke’s hard work drew the first free and Cian O’Riordan’s grafting won the other two.  Daniel Nolan and Justin worked the ball well out of defence and found Ciano who played in Daniel Murnane and he kicked high and over the bar.  Glenville kicked an unanswered 1-2 in the final minutes of the half to go in at the break with a three point (-08 to 3-02) lead.

On 33 minutes, Glenville scored their fourth goal after more poor defending and lack of tracking from Carrig.  Seven minutes later they made it five goals to go nine points clear with the aid of the stiffening breeze.  Things now looked very ominous for Carrigtwohill.  Joel Joseph surged upfield with the ball and played the perfect ball to Seán Walsh who blasted to the top corner of the net off the outside of his boot.  Alex Kidney blasted his effort over the bar a minute later to get Carrig back to within five points on 45 minutes.

Glenville edged six ahead again with a point.  Seán Walsh kicked a great point from distance and Daniel Murnane brought it back to four points (1-11 to 5-03) with a placed ball on 53 minutes.  Glenville kicked themselves five points clear in the 60th minute.  Daniel Murnane was ‘clothes-hangered’ running through towards goal as added time ran down.  He made no mistake with the close range free to close the gap to four points and to see Carrigtwohill into the final by the skin of their teeth.

Well done to the panel of players and management for digging in when they went nine points down in the second half.  The team showed great heart and determination to get out the result that was needed.  A special mention must go to 17 year old Daniel Nolan who played a great game at wing back.

Carrig will play Castlemartyr in the final.  (Fixture details to follow.)

Carrigtwohill Team: Adam Walsh, Seán Ahern, Neil Coughlan, Ben Allen, Seán Brennan, Seán de Búrca, Daniel Nolan, Seán Walsh (1-2), Cian O’Riordan, Daragh Hannigan, Daniel Murnane (0-9; 0-5f), Joel Joseph, Justin Oke, Alex Kidney (0-1), Mark O’Connor.  Subs Used: Patrick Walsh, Matthew Barrett, Jack Barrett, Liam Scriven.  Other Subs: Alex O’Driscoll, George McCarthy.

Management: Aidan O’Donnell (manager), Aidan Flanagan, Clive Cremen, Tomás Hogan, Tom O’Brien.

Referee: Peter O’Donovan (Carraig na bhFear).