Two-goal Éire Óg have too much for Mayfield
Éire Óg 2-20 Mayfield 0-18
A WHIRLWIND start to the second-half paved the way for Éire Óg’s decisive victory over Mayfield in the county intermediate hurling championship encounter at Páirc Ui Rinn last Saturday.
Leading by 1-10 to 0-10 at the interval, the Muskerry side made a major breakthrough within two minutes of the resumption, courtesy of a wonderful goal from dynamic midfielder John Cooper.
There was an element of good fortune attached to the score in that Cooper picked up possession following a miss-hit delivery from Éire Óg wing-back Matt Brady, but he was about 50 metres out and there appeared to be no imminent threat to the Douglas citadel.
Surging forward with pace and power and with the ball glued to his stick, however, Cooper completed his blistering run with an unstoppable shot to the roof of the net.
After Shane O’Donovan pulled a point back for Mayfield from a long-range free, Éire Óg quickly tightened the screw with good scores from Eoin O’Shea, impressive substitute Colm O’Callaghan and John Cooper before O’Shea tacked on another from a placed ball to make it 2-14 to 0-11 in the 39th minute.
Their advantage wasn’t to be seriously threatened after that, as their defence, in which Conor McGoldrick, Mark Kelleher and John Mullins were especially defiant, came up with most of the answers.
The fact that Mayfield registered just two points from play in the second half, both of which came in stoppage time, tells its own story, and there is no disputing Éire Óg had much more to offer up front over the hour.
Such as Joe Cooper, Kevin Hallissey, Daniel Goulding and Eoin O’Shea all made their presence felt at different stages in an Éire Óg attack that, according to team manager Vincent O’Connell, has enormous potential.
“Our forwards have savage ability, and, while you’d have to be pleased with this performance, I think there’s room for improvement, because I felt we should be getting the ball in faster to them,” remarked the Éire Óg boss.
It has to go down as an immensely satisfying win for Éire Óg at the same time, bearing in mind that Mayfield ran eventual champions Ballincollig to three points at the semi-final stage last year.
The city side started promisingly enough, although Éire Óg could have snatched the early initiative, but for erratic shooting, which brought them eight wides, including one from a penalty by ‘keeper Dylan Desmond, before the break.
Following Desmond’s missed penalty, Mayfield had points from Daniel Lucey, their most effective forward by some distance, and Michael John Coffey to go 0-4 to 0-2 up midway through the first half.
Kevin Hallissey and Joe Cooper then shared a brace to bring Éire Óg back on terms, and there was never more than the minimum between the teams until Daniel Goulding grabbed the game’s opening goal in the 29th minute.
It was an excellent finish from Goulding after Eoin O’Shea created the opening, and it left Éire Óg 1-6 to 0-7 to the good.
Mayfield responded with two points from Daniel Lucey, but Éire Óg finished strongly during the eight minutes of stoppage time, with Daniel Goulding completing their first-half tally when deftly touching an exquisite sideline ball by John Cooper over the bar.
Boosted by Cooper’s stunning goal, they raised their performance in earnest on the turnover, and, in view of Mayfield’s shortcomings in attack, the outcome was never in doubt after Éire Óg opened up a nine-point gap inside 39 minutes.
In the final analysis, it was a compelling display and a convincing victory by the Mid-Cork men, who, semi finalists last year and runners-up to Aghada two seasons ago, are entitled to head into next Saturday’s round 4 clash with 2017 county junior kingpins St Catherine’s in a very positive frame of mind.
ÉIRE ÓG: D Desmond; J Kelleher, J Mullins; M Brady, M Kelleher, D Herlihy; John Cooper (1-3), B Corcoran; E Kelleher, E O’Shea (0-5, 2f, 1 ‘65), D Goulding (1-2); K Hallissey (0-3), Joe Cooper (0-3), D Kirwan Subs: C O’Callaghan (0-3) for Kirwan, ht, R O’Toole (0-1) for E Kelleher, 56
MAYFIELD: D Wise; G Lehane, K Brosnan, P Condon; D Looney, S O’Donovan (0-2f), K Punch; D O’Neill, N Kelly (0-9, 8f); D Malone, G Looney, MJ Coffey (0-2); D Lucey (0-4), S Kelly, S Duggan (0-1) Subs: B O’Leary for Duggan (injured), 3, S Crowley for Lehane (injured), 56
REFEREE: C Egan (Glen Rovers)