Fr.O Neills 1:05 v Castlelyons 3:09

We contested this years Fé21 East Cork Football Final for the first time since 2008 having been victorious over Bride Rovers in that game,we travelled to Dungourney with high hopes of victory and also knowing that we were up against a very good and physically strong outfit in Castlelyons.We played against the strong wind in the first half and settled into the game from early on,Castlelyons were first to register a score with a point after 3 mins.of play we replied with a pointed free of our own from Liam O Driscoll on the 6 minute mark and followed this up with a second pointed free from Paudie McMahon after 11 mins.of play,the physical exchanges were tough but fair from both sides with no quarter being asked or given.On the 13th min.mark Castlelyons were awarded a penalty for an adjudged foot block by one of our defenders in the small square(harsh enough call we thought) which they converted to leave the score at 1:01 to 0:02 at this point,the game continued at a good pace with both sets of defenders being in control by way of putting the opposing forwards under pressure every time they got a chance to have a kick for a score.Castlelyons were to score another point on the 20 min.mark but we followed up with 2 good points of our own from John Barry 23 mins.and Liam O Driscoll 25 mins.to leave the bare minimum between the sides and it stayed like that until half time.We turned to play with the wind to our backs in the 2nd half but alas it did not have the desired effect as it was Castlelyons who were to gain the upper hand when they were first to score with a well taken point and they were then gifted a goal from a ball that should have been cleared out in the corner back position found its way across to one of their unmarked forwards and he had the easiest of tasks to slot the ball home with 5 mins.gone in the 2nd half,they continued to take the game to our lads and were to add another 2 points in the next 3 mins to widen the gap even further worse was to follow on the 53 min.mark when they took advantage of more slack defending on our behalf to score another goal to leave the scoreline reading 3:05 to 0:04 with 54 mins.gone in the half.To be fair to our lads they stuck to the task and were rewared firstly by Joe.Millerick who scored a good point and secondly by Donough O Flynn who won a good ball and duly rounded his man to score a well taken goal with 20 mins.gone,Castlelyons took complete control from this juncture on and scored 4 unanswered points to round of a great 2nd.half display to run out winners on the above scoreline,all in all we can have no cribs as we had to give way to the better team on the day so well done and congrats to Castlelyons and also well done to our own lads for making the final with the bitter taste of defeat serving as a reminder when the Fé21 Hurling Championship comes along.

Team:A.Hayes,J.Millerick(0:01),B.Hayes(Cpt.),I.Lane,K.Hegarty,T.Motherway,A.Kenneally,R.Cullinane,J.Barry (0:01),M.Hayes.D.Sexton,M.O Keeffe.F.Duffy,L.O Driscoll(0:02,0:01fr.),P.McMahon(0:01fr.)Subs.used:D.O Flynn(1:00) for M.O Keeffe ht,Wm.Joyce for F.Duffy 43mins.G.Foley for D.Sexton 48mins.S.Lee for P.McMahon 58mins.Wm.Lane for M.Hayes 46 mins.blood sub.