A first ever competitive game under the new rules for St Colmcilles; and a competitive game it was. The game was played in Carraig Na Bhfear with the pitch holding up well given the time of the year. The away side opened the scoring with a pointed free in the fourth minute. Sean Whelan replied almost immediately with one from play. The next score will go down as a historic one as it was the first ever two-pointer for a St Colmcilles player. This 40 yard effort came courtesy of Robert Docherty who is back on a week’s holidays from his studies in Gronigen (Netherlands). Four minutes later corner forward Sean Delaney who had a made a number of purposeful runs previously, finally had one pay-off when he finished powerfully to the roof of the net. Sean Whelan added the next two scores from frees and the home side lead by 1 – 05 to 0 – 01 by the 21st minute. Midleton had not threatened much up to this point and when did go forward they were repelled by an excellent full-back trio of Luke Murphy, Aidan Docherty and David O’Mahony. However, they did find their way to get two pointed frees late in the half to narrow the gap to five at the break; 1-05 to 0-03.
This may have given them confidence as they emerged a different team in the second half, They dominated possession in the opening 10 minutes but thanks to pressure from the home-side and wayward shooting they could only manage one score. Sean Whelan scored a free in the 11th minute after a surging run by Rob Sheehan drew a foul. For all of Midleton’s efforts to this point, the five point half time gap remained. In the next 10 minutes they found their scoring boots and they rattled off the next four scores to leave the minimum in it. At that point, came the crucial score of the match. Sean Whelan attempt at a point dropped short and the ever alert Brendan Quain pounced to palm the ball to the net to extend the lead to 4 points, There were no further scores and Colmcille’s go forth to the semi-final
Team and Scorers
St. Colmcille’s
1 – Aaron Ryan
2 – Luke Murphy
3 – Aidan Docherty
4 – David O’Mahony
5 – Robert Sheehan
6 – Joe Dunphy
7 – John Barry
8 – Robert Docherty (0-02 -x 2 pointer)
9 – PJ O’Donovan
10 – Evan Flynn
11 – Adam Bowen
12 – Luke Kelleher
13 – Sean Delaney (1 – 00)
14 – Brendan Quain (1 – 00)
15 – Sean Whelan (0 – 04 – 3 frees)
SUBS:
off: Luke Kelleher on: Alex Flynn