Ballyhea GAA : Cork : Ireland : Reports

Cork County Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship Round 1

Ballyhea 2-13 Ballymartle 1-18
Played in Fermoy (03/05/09)

Ballymartle advanced to the 3rd round while Ballyhea have a difficult 2nd round clash with Courcey Rovers after this defeat at Fermoy. Ballyhea with the aid of the wind in the first half led 1-10 to 1-7 at half time with Darran Ronan scoring the goal in the 23rd minute after the Ballymartle keeper batted out Liam O'Connor's initial shot. But our lead should have been greater only for some erratic shooting with a total of 10 wides in the first half. Aidan "Chuck" O' Connor had a blinder in defence while up front minor Ryan Hanley scored a fine point in his championship debut.

Ballymartle had 3 early points in the second half to draw level but Darran Ronan crashed home his second goal after a great work by Maurice O'Sullivan in the 41st minute and this was followed by points from Neil Ronan and Maurice to put us 5 points clear with 14 minutes remaining 2-12 to 1-10.

Ballymartle came surging back but found David O' Riordan in terrific form in the Ballyhea goal bringing off a number of fine saves. Ballymartle added 6 points to one from Maurice O' Sullivan to leave the sides level with 1 minute of normal time remaining, but a contoversial free against Neil Ronan who seemed to have had his jersey pulled as he advanved on goal ended up as a point for Ballymartle and they followed with another deep in injury time to send us to the back door route.

Overall a very good performance but we now face a very tricky assignment to keep our championship hopes alive for 2009.

Scorers:
Darran Ronan 2-1
Maurice O' Sullivan 0-5
Neil Ronan 0-4
Ryan Hanley 0-1
Ian Ronan 0-1
Owen O'Sullivan 0-1.

Team:
David O' Riordan, Aidan O' Connor, Eamon Morrissey, Hugh O' Leary, Owen O' Sullivan, Barry Coleman, Michael Morrissey, Ian Ronan, Aidan Crowley, Jonathon O' Sullivan, Neil Ronan, Liam O' Connor, Ryan Hanley, Maurice O' Sullivan, Darran Ronan.

Subs:
Kevin Hanley, Gavin Morrissey.