Last Saturday in Buttevant we played our refixed county junior b football championship first round match against fellow north Cork side Milford and came away with a very good win after dominating from start to finish. We played into the wind in the first half and got off to a solid start and after fifteen minutes we led 0-3 to 0-0 with points coming from Kenneth Barry(0-2) and Eoin O’Regan(0-1).

Milford were trying hard to create scores but time and time again they were well marshaled by our outstanding back line with our full back line of Brian Sheedy, Richard Burke and Darren Roche stopping many Milford attacks. Our half backs Haulie Burke, Robert McHugh and Colman O’Reilly were full of running and all three covered a serious amount of ground going forward in the first half  and also tracking back helping to keep Milford at bay.

In Sean Lynch and Eoin McHugh we have two towering midfielders who have an outstanding work rate and both these guys are a match for any midfield paring in this grade. Our next score was a very well played move which saw some great passing movement between Jamie Sheedy and Brian O’Reilly who picked out Vincent Burke in space and Vince found Kenneth Barry with a pin point pass and he was upended in the square which resulted in referee Micheal O’Keeffe awarding a penalty which was slotted home Kenneth.

This gave us a six point lead with half time approaching and from our next attack we had our forth point when Eoin McHugh was fouled and he calmly put over the free to see us leading at half time 1-4 to 0-0. We knew that Milford would come at us in the second half and this is exactly what they done from the off and they had the first two points to close the gap. Thankfully we got on top again and some great play from Sean Lynch and Darren Roche set up Eoin O’Regan who played a great ball across the square and Kenneth Barry was on hand to apply the finish for our second goal of the game.

Moments later Milford were thankful to their keeper who made a finger tip save from a rasping shot by Haulie Burke which rebounded off the bar and away to safety. Milford answered this with two points of their own but we then had two brilliant points from the hard working Alan Sheedy when he popped up in space and was set up by Vincent Burke and Brian O’Reilly. This gave us a 2-6 to 0-4 lead heading into the last ten minutes.

but Milford to their credit kept going and they got in for a well taken goal which keeper Stephen Donegan could do noting about. Stephen who was very impressive all through the game with his kick outs and high fielding under pressure. We finished the game strongly and with substitutes Eamonn Fitzgerald and Shaun Cronin coming on in attack there was no let up by us and these two lads combined which saw Cronin point from close range to stretch our lead.

From here to the end we closed the game out with our back line well on top and our midfielders and forwards attacking at every opportunity and Kenneth Barry had the last three points of the game when he was set up by Brian O’Reilly, Eoin O’Regan and Jamie Sheedy respectively to see us run out winners in the end 2-10 to 1-4. This game also doubled as a div 2 football league game so we also gained two valuable league points.

Team: Stephen Donegan, Richard Burke, Brian Sheedy, Darren Roche, Colman O’Reilly, Haulie Burke, Robert McHugh, Sean Lynch, Eoin McHugh(0-1), Alan Sheedy(0-2), Eoin O’Regan(0-1), Jamie Sheedy, Vincent Burke, Brian O’Reilly, Kenneth Barry(2-5), Subs, Eamon Fitzgerald for Eoin O’Regan, Shaun Cronin(0-1) for Vincent Burke.