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Cobh Knock Out St.Catherine’s

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THE CROWD got plenty value for their money in this second round Cork County IHC at Páirc Uí Rinn. Cobh will be thrilled with, their gusty performance, and rightly so. They lost by a similar margin to Ballygarvan a week ago, and successfully built on that foundation. However, they didn’t do this the easy way.
After playing with the wind in the opening 30 minutes they trailed by two points, and despite pushing five points clear midway through the second half, they made hard work of the win, only scoring two points in the final quarter.

Five of their forwards found the target, with corner back Rory O’Connell and wing back Liam Greaney also raising flags. Indeed, Greaney’s contribution was immense. Not alone did he score 1-2 from placed balls but his attacking style set up a pair of points for Shane Hourihan and Waldon Drake early in the second half. But spare a thought for St Catherine’s’ Kevin Dineen who stood over two frees in the closing. moments looking for the equalising point but disappointingly they both tailed wide. However, no blame whatsoever should be apportioned to the corner forward as he left a huge impression on the game, having already nailed 1-13 of his
team’s tally
.
As Cobh move into round four, St Catherine’s have one more lifeline in this championship against Kilworth in the third round. Cobh got off to a flying start when Thomas McGrath tipped home their opening goal inside two minutes. Five points intersected by two from Kieran Morrisson and Brian Mulcahy yielded them a 1-5 to 0-3 advantage. St Catherine’s keeper Ian O’Connell was forced to make a point-blank save before Kevin Dineen punished any Cobh indiscretions with his placed balls and when Morrisson smashed home an unstoppable shot on the run up to half-time, the Conna side edged in front, 1-7 to 1-6. By the half Dineen increased this to 1-10 to 1-8 with a couple of late frees.

Cobh turned to play against the wind but the elements seemed to make little difference. While Dineen restarted with a well struck goal for St Catherine’s, Cobh regrouped magnificently to hit 2-4 without reply. Greaney firing one goal from a close-in free and the other coming from Hourihan, with some fine point taking from free-taker Brian Ahern.Twice Dineen reduced the arrears to three points and with the clock well into added time, Morrisson and Dineen brought the difference down to one point. Try as they might, St Catherine’s searched for parity but unfortunately for Dineen – who had worked so hard to get them to this stage – the books just wouldn’t balance on this occasion.

COBH: C McDowell; R O’Connell (0-1), T Byrne, D Tallon; L McDermott, S Kearney, L Greaney (1-2,1-11,0-1’65); M O’Connor, A Walley; A McCarthy, B Ahern (0-6, Sf), E Wilson (0-1); S. Hourihan (1-2), W Drake (0-2), T McGrath (1-0). Subs: D Barrett for M O’Connor (22 mins). A Stack for D Tallon (ht) , B Meaney for L McDermott (50).

ST CATHERINE’S: I O’Connell; C Hegarty, P Cotter, C Kearney; R Clancy, E Kenneally, L O’Connor; S Cotter, S Kearney; N O’Brien, P Roche, B Mulcahy (0-1); K Dineen (1-13,0-11f, 0-1’65), K Morrisson (1-2), S Kearney. Subs: A Keane for C Kearney (28). J Sheehan for S Kearney (40), T O’Connor for B Mulcahy (45), S O’Brien for S Cotter (53 inj).
Referee: P Downey (Inniscarra).

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