U21 A football Championship – Aghada 2-9 v Glanmire – 2-5
Aghada travelled to Sallybrook last Friday night last for a must win game in the 2nd round robin game of this years East Cork championship. After a below par performance against Glenville the 1st night out, big improvements would be needed, and from the get go, Aghada seemed more ready for the battle on this occasion. Aaron Berry and John Looney fired us two points up early on, but then despite plenty of possession thanks to Marcus Leahy and Paul Daly at midfield, Aghada missed a number of point scoring opportunities. Glanmire opened their scoring with a free on 12 minutes and this prompted a scoring burst from the home team. After giving up a soft turnover in attack, Glanmire broke up the field and blasted home a good goal to take the lead. 3 minutes later, Glanmire again broke through the Aghada rearguard and again fired home an unstopable shot for their 2nd goal. It was all Glanmire at this point and two minutes later they pointed to go 2 goals clear on the scoreboard with 10 minutes to go to the short whistle. Aghada needed a response and nearly gave the ultimate response only to see both Kevin O’Hanlon and Alan Hogan denied with an outstanding double save from the Glanmire ‘keeper. Danny Creedon did steady the ship somewhat when he pointed a free after the impressive Aaron Berry was fouled. 2 minutes later, Berry converted from play after taking a pass for O’Hanlon and when O’Hanlon set up Looney on 30 minutes for another point Aghada were well back in the game and back on top of their opponents. The Glanmire ‘keeper was the standout performer on the night and next he pulled off another super save when he denied Alan Hogan for the second time. From the resulting ’45 Charlie Terry, who got through a trojan amount of work in the game, kicked a fine score to leave just 2 points in it at the break.
On resumption the sides exchanged points in the opening 10. Next up Alan Hogan made a great run in on the Glanmire goals and on the 3rd time of asking , finally beat the Glanmire custodian with an unstopable left legged finish to the top corner of the net. The next score saw Hogan again get in on goal. This time his excellent effort was again saved by the keeper, but O’Hanlon was on hand to pick up the rebound and finish calmly for Aghada’s second goal. Aghada were now 4 clear. It could have been more after spurning a few scorable frees. Glanmire now however started to get on top. Aghada’s six backs were all playing well on the night, with Aaron Butler, Tommy O’Donoghue and Jordan Tynan particularly impressive, which meant Glanmire found scores hard to come by. They kicked a good free on 21 minutes and converted a ’45 on 24 minutes after Ciaran O’Shea had saved smartly at his near post. It was a nervous finish with only 2 points in it entering injury time. Luke O’Connell made a great block down to set up another Aghada goal chance. Again the ‘keeper was up to it, this time deflecting Berry’s goal bound effort over the bar. A minute later on 33 minutes Berry pointed a free after Hogan was fouled and that was the game for Aghada.
Its all to play for in this competition now as we face Fr. O’Neills in our last round robin game. 3 teams still have a chance of making the final and all will be decided next weekend. Aghada Team and scorers – Ciaran O’Shea, Kyle O’Shea, Kalen O’Donoghue, Aaron Butler, Darragh Murphy, Jordan Tynan, Cal Bawden, Paul Daly, Marcus Leahy, Charlie Terry (0-1), John Looney (0-2), Daniel Creedon (0-1 free), Aaron Berry (0-4, 1f), Kevin O’Hanlon (1-0), Alan Hogan (1-1). Sub Used Luke O’Connell.
Highlights Below -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66DNwaLyJ2c
