Fr.O Neills 2:12 v Castlemartyr 0:11

We took on our near neighbours on Sat.evening last in Midleton in the semi-final of the East Cork C/ship.We couldn't have wished for a better start as straight from the throw in Podge Butler broke forward with pace and power to the 20 metre line laid off a great pass to Brian McCarthy who buried the ball to the back of the Castlemartyr net this was soon followed by a good Shane Harrington pt.Castlemartyr hit back with 2 good pts.of their own and our reply was swift with a Ger.O Leary pt.A small bit of good fortune then came our way when an Eoin McCarthy free came back of the post and fell nicely for Eoin Conway who duly slotted goal no.2 again Castlemartyr's response was swift with 2 more pts.of their own,we replied with 2 more good pts.from the boots of Eddie Holland and Brian McCarthy a slight concern was the sqandering of 3/4 very good scoring oppertunities late on in the half and having played with the wind we were hoping these missed chances wouldn't come back to haunt us still we were full value for our half time lead of 2:04 to 5pts.In a fantastic start to the 2nd.half we rattled of 4 pts.courtesy of 1 from Eddie,2 from free's from Brian Mac,and another from a free from his younger brother Eoin.to take command of proceedings.

Following this one must give credit to Castlemartyr for not throwing in the towel when in a very good spell for them they fired over 4 very good scores of their own to reduce the defecit to 5 pts.once more.A game changing moment happened around this time also when our Goalkeeper David Hyde brought off a fantastic penalty save (which was a harsh decision to say the least) to keep us in control of the game.Our reply to this was swift once more when Eoin Conway and Eddie Holland with a pt.a piece increased our lead to 7 pt's once again.Castlemartyr replied with a pt.Brian Mac cancelled this with a good pt.of his own again Castlemartyr replied with a pt.and Eoin Mac brought proceedings to a close with a pointed free of his own to see us wining on the above scoreline.This was a very good workman like performance from our lads and with a bit more accuracy in our kicking in front of goals we could have had another 5 or 6 pts.on the scoreboard something im fairly sure Coach Colm Millerick and selector Tom Wall will be working on for the Final,the other semi-final between Killeagh(defending Champions) and ErinsOwn won't be played for a couple of weeks due to ErinsOwn's involvement in next weeks East Cork Jnr.A Hurling Final but for now we have an East Cork Final to look forward to.

Team:D.Hyde,J.T.Goold,M.Pomphrett,B.Hayes,J.Barry,R.O Neill,N.Griffin,E.Conway 1:01,P.Butler,R.Cullinane,E.McCarthy 0:03 fr.,G.O Leary 0:01,E.Holland 0:03,B.McCarthy1:03 0:01 fr.,S.Harrington 0:01.Subs.used:A.Brett for S.Harrington,R.Murphy for B.Hayes.not used:S.Sloane,A.Kenneally,J.Millerick,F.Duffy,P.McMahon,D.Colbert,I.lane,B.Sweeney,T.Motherway, E.Kenefick,R.Hyde.