Shanballymore 1-17 Dromina 0-16.

Last Tuesday night in Shanballymore we played league leaders and current North Cork Champions Dromina and after an hour of tough fast hurling we picked up two very important points after one of our best performances all year.

This was an important win as we now are back in with an outside chance of making the semi-finals, the first half was played at a fast pace with both teams going at it from the start. We trailed at half time by a single point 0-10 to 0-9, our first half scores came from Brian Sheedy(0-2), Jerome Fitzgerald(0-2), Brian O’Reilly(0-1), Jamie Sheedy(0-3), and Eoin O’Regan(0-1),.

We had some outstanding displays in the first half especially from our defence where Robert McHugh playing at wing back was a tower of strength along with solid play from Jonathan Dennehy, Sean Lynch and James Hayes. We lost the services of full back Eoin McHugh during the first half and this saw Darren Roche move from midfield to full back for the remainder of the game and he also done a fine job when called upon.

The first ten minutes of the second half was close enough with Dromina adding points from play and a 65 which we answered when Jamie got two points to  leave the minimum between the teams 0-12 to 0-11. In the next ten minutes the game really swung in our favour when we scored 1-3 to a single Dromina point to take a four point lead leading in to the home stretch.

Our goal was a top quality piece of play when quick thinking from a free saw Jamie find Vincent Burke on the 21 yard line and his first time effort billowed the net for a fantastic goal which gave us a great lift. We followed this with quick points from Brian Sheedy, Brian O’Reilly and Eoin O’Regan, we were now playing some outstanding hurling all over the field. The last ten minutes saw both teams swapping points and when Dromina did get through for a goal chance they found in form goalkeeper Declan Fitzgibbon when he bought off a fantastic save to keep our lead intact and see us gain the two league points on offer.

We now have two games left in this league against Ballyhooly and Glanworth and these will be played in the coming weeks with both games at home in Shanballymore.

Team: Declan Fitzgibbon, Eoin McHugh, James Hayes, Brendan Hayes, Sean Lynch, Eoin O’Regan(0-2), Robert McHugh, Darren Roche, Padraig Fitzgerald, Brian Sheedy(0-3), Jerome Fitzgerald(0-2), Brian O’Reilly(0-2), Paul Burke, Alan Sheedy(0-1), Jamie Sheedy(0-7), Subs: Vincent Burke(1-0) for Eoin McHugh inj, Kenneth Barry for Padraig Fitzgerald, Niall Barry for Brian Sheedy inj, Sean Cronin, Brian O’Regan, Eamon Fitzgerald, Mick O’Donovan