Mayfield 2-14 Shanballymore 1-7.

We played our second game in the county hurling league last Saturday night away to Mayfield but unfortunately we failed to get going on the night and were well beaten by a better balanced Mayfield outfit who will no doubt be setting theIR sights on county honours this year.

This game was in danger of being cancelled before throw in as a very dense fog came down over the Mayfield venue and made viewing very difficult for both teams and there was also constant rain throughout the game which made playing conditions very difficult. From the off Mayfield showed why they are a very good hurling team with some excellent movement and direct hurling into their dangerous forwards who were always a treat. They raced into a early lead with a goal inside two minutes and followed this up with four quick fire points before we got on the score board through Brian O’Reilly.

They added three more points to lead 1-7 to 0-1 after twenty minutes and we knew we were in danger of being totally dominated if we didn’t up our game. Thankfully we got back into the game with some well taken points from Darren Roche and Jonathan Dennehy from play and Jamie Sheedy had one from a free to close the gap. Mayfield added point number eight to lead by seven points with five minutes left in the half but the we had a great goal when a long ball into the square was met beautifully first time by Jonathan Dennehy and his shot hit the net to reduce the lead.

We had two more points from Haulie Burke and Kenneth Barry to come within two points with the half nearly up but from the next attack Mayfield got in for a soft goal which they followed up with a quick fire point to lead by six points at half time. This goal was a real set back and gave Mayfield a comfortable lead heading into the second half. Great credit must go to our back line who were under constant pressure in the first half but they really closed up shop for the remainder of the game and only conceded five points in the second half but unfortunately our forwards were to have an off night and never really threatened the Mayfield backs. In the end they ran out easy winners 2-14 to 1-7 and took the points on offer.

Team: Stephen Donegan, Richard Burke, Eoin McHugh, Alan Sheedy, Eoin O’Regan(0-1), Sean Lynch,  Brian Sheedy, Rob McHugh, Darren Roche(0-1), Haulie Burke(0-1), Colman O’Reilly, Brian O’Reilly(0-2), Jamie Sheedy(0-1f), Jonathan Dennehy(1-1), Kenneth Barry(0-1): Subs: Paul Burke for Kenneth Barry, James Hayes for Rob McHugh, Jerome Fitzgerald, Declan Fitzgibbon, Mick O’Donovan, Brendan Hayes, Shaun Cronin, Dave Twomey.