Mitchelstown Lose Out In Close Encounter 

Mitchelstown.     2. O7 Castletownbere. 2  09 

Mitchelstown made the long journey to Castletownbere last Sunday to play their 2nd game in this years Div4 County League.

The conditions on the day were tough for football with patches of rain and a strong wind blowing, this made the surface very soft and difficult for good football but to be fair to both teams, they knuckled down and played some very good football over the 60 minutes.

Mitchelstown won the toss and decided to play with the wind and in the opening five minutes they bore down on the Castletownbere goal, a good move involving Sean o Sullivan & Michael "Brick" Walsh was finished off by Shane Beston for the opening point of the game.

Castletownbere equalized in the 8th min with the play being very frantic and with some great tackles were going in from both sides a well kicked free by Brick Walsh edged town in front on the 12th minute. This was followed by a great move involving Lar O'Flynn & Beston who then offloaded to the Brick who kicked a beautiful point on the 15th min to stretch the lead to 2 points.

Castletownbere started to put some good moves together themselves & they opened up the Mitchelstown defense on the 18th min only for Josh Irwine to make a great save & when the ball was cleared , it was moved quickly up the field and a Shane Beston point had us 3 in front on the 20th minute.

Then in the 22nd min a Brick Walsh free had us 4 in front but back came Castletownbere with a great move coming from their own half back line being dispatched to the town net to leave the sides level with 6 minutes remaining in the half. This was quickly followed another good save by the Town keeper ensuring Castletownbere were kept out but it came at a cost as Josh picked up an injury and was replaced in goals by Shane Cahill who was himself returning from injury having been badly hurt early in last year's Championship game with Youghal. Another Castletownbere point put them in the lead at halftime 1 03 to 0 05.

Playing against the wind in the 2nd half, Mitchelstown started very well with a great move involving O Sullivan, Sean Walsh onto to Lar O'Flynn whose shot just clipped the outside of the post. Straight from the kickout saw Beston pass to Sean Walsh who kicked a great point to draw the sides level .

Town were dominating the opening 10 mins but some poor shooting and decision making were proving costly & worse was to follow as on their first attack in the 2nd half , Castletownbere with a long speculative kick into the Mitchelstown square some how goaled as the ball ended in the back of the net.

With 15 minutes remaining a good move was finished off by Stephen Fox to reduce the gap to 3 then on the 20th min a great pass by Lar Flynn was won by Dylan Price inside the 14, he turned the full back and rattled the net to leave the teams level again & another Brick Walsh point was followed by a Lar Flynn point had town 2 ahead with 8 min to go but back came Castletownbere with 2 points on the 23 and 24th min once again had the teams level with 5 to go.

Mitchelstown kept attacking though & looked to have a goal chance on the 29th min but the ball was turned over and Castletownbere quickly moved the ball out of defence and kicked the winning scores in injury time.

Despite the loss , our Management were delighted with the effort of the lads who gave everything on the day & put in some great performances especially from Dylan Farrelly , John O Grady & Sean Lane.

Team

J Irwine, B Coffey,Pa Molloy,J O Grady D Farrelly, S Fox (0 1) , S O Sullivan, L Flynn (0 1) , SWalsh (1 01), D Price (1 01) , L Hanna , M Walsh (0 02) ,S Lane ,P Gorman ,S Beston (0 01) .

Sub used ; S Cahill 23rd min for Josh Irwin ( injured).

Lotto

There was no winner of the latest Lotto Draw on Thursday in Tods & the current Jackpot €12,000 with the next draw taking place in The Clongibbon House on 7th March.

Tickets are just €2 each  or 3 for €5 with several other options available from Club members.

Thanking everybody for their igreat support.

Don’t forget to support the local retailers who support our fundraising lotto & we ask you to think & Shop Local !!

Fixture

Knoknagree v. Mitchelstown next Sunday 24 th of February 11am in Knocknagree