East Cork U21 FC Semi Final - Castlelyons v Glanmire - today

Castlelyons are out in the first Championship game of 2016 as we travel to Duggan Memorial Park, Sallybrook, Glanmire to play in the East Cork Under 21 A Semi Final to play Glanmire at home tomorrow (Saturday).

Throw in is at 4 p.m. and Jim Hennessey is the whistler. This is the first venture for Mark Murphy in management and he is assisted by the wily Mark O Flynn, Ronan Fenton and Ml Spillane.

Even though it is a Semi-Final it is the first game of the year for the U21’s.  They have had a bit of training and rest from the camáns and should be in reasonable form but hard to judge our standard vis a vis Glanmire. We would appreciate your support for this game so don’t forget just in the old main route to the real Capital in Sallybrook, Glanmire at 4 pm.  

Preview -  Castlelyons v Ballincollig – D2IHL – Sunday 6.3.16 at 2.30 pm in Castlelyons.

The Cork Intermediate Hurling League has a look of the English Soccer League about it with the number of teams and, particularly, as there are now four Divisions. Comment on the merits or otherwise of this new League are for another day but there one thing sure and it is becoming clear even after that even after just one round played the pressure is on teams to get results or the ladder could get slippy and it is competitive.

We played very well last Sunday away to Carrigaline in an immaculate well prepared pitch but in the end suffered an eight-point defeat as we lost our way a little in the second half.  The final score in that one was 3-14 to 0-15.  This result leaves us without a point and third from the bottom whereas Carrigaline are top on three points as they drew with Fr O Neills during the week in another game.

Our opponents Ballincollig had a home game in the Powdermills versus Bandon.  The ‘Southern Star’ reported it as a fairly feisty game and Bandon finished with thirteen men.  Bandon like Carrigaline against us bagged a few goals one early by Darren Crowley and one late by Pat Prendergast to win by seven points on a score 2-11 to 0-11. 

However, Ballincollig, also a good senior football team, showed plenty of fire against Bandon. They have very good hurlers in Ciarán O Sullivan at midfield, Brian Cotter is strong at full forward and Aidan O Donovan is handy too especially from frees. 

Overall, this will be an interesting game and the losers could be heading for Division three if they go down two from two.  We must cope with the loss of Colm Spillane for the season which is a pity and tough on Colm himself.  We have so many fine hurlers who went all the way to a historic Premier Minor Final before defeat to Blackrock and then won a county U21 B Grade in style a few years ago and now many doing very well in Colleges hurling so we must move on.  There is a saying about struggle and progress that “those who do not move, do not notice their chains”.   So we have the talent and let’s give it a right go.

Cathal McAllister is the referee, a good one, and hopefully our pitch will be in good order for the day. 

We would appreciate your support as it matters.