A very poor first half showing by White’s Cross proved to be costly in this Seandún Cup first round game played at White’s Cross grounds on Sunday last. Despite scoring two early points through Shane Cahill and the outstanding John Gaffney, White’s Cross trailed their local rivals by 1-09 to 0-02 at the short whistle. The home side were much improved after the interval. The introduction of Edwin Buckley, who notch 4 second half points, gave the team a lift while a goal by the aformentioned John Gaffney was the key score in ensuring that White’s Cross narrowed the gap to two points with only ten minutes remaining. The turning point in ensuring that the game swung back in the favour of Whitechurch was a rather harsh black card for John Gaffney. Losing such an influential player seemed to drain the confidence of the home side. Whitechurch scored five points without reply to kill off the White’s Cross comeback and run out deserving seven point winners. Despite the defeat there are many positives to be taken from the game. The spirited second half comeback and the fact that side contained so many young players; 12 of the 20 players used on the day were aged 23 or under.

Team: Glenn Arrigan, Ronan Quaine, Donal Kelly, Seamus Quinlan, Cillian Hall, Robert McElhinney, Sean Twomey, Michael Osborne, Joe Cashman, Aaron Kent, Sam Heffernan (0-01) Cathal Wallace, Niall Twomey, John Gaffney (1-01), Shane Cahill (0-01). Subs Used: Edwin Buckley (0-04 – 2 frees) for Cathal Wallace, Fiachra O Connell for Cillian Hall (inj), Fergal Reid for Fiachra O’Connell, Max Philpott for Aaron Kent, Ronan Fahy for Niall Twomey, Niall Twomey for John Gaffney (black card).