St. Michaels 0-11, Curraha 1-08.

Curraha looked to be heading home from sunny Dunganny with a brace of points this Sunday morning when they led by the minimum as the game ticked deep into injury time, however in the 64th minute St. Michaels won a free when the in-rushing Ronan Cassidy was brought to ground and Ciaran Lynch made no mistake in converting for a share of the spoils.

The game itself which was level on seven occasions was no classic, it was riddled with sloppy passing and poor decision making by both sides throughout and although the strong cross wind may have accounted for some of this poor play both management teams will be looking for vast improvements on their next outings.

The opening half was a low scoring affair with Curraha holding a narrow 0-4 to 0-3 interval lead, that lead would have been greater but for a brilliant save from Darren O'Connell on 13 minutes which was bound for the back of the net. Curraha opened the scoring after 3 minutes and added a further three points after 8, 14 and 20 minutes, one of which was waved wide by the umpire but over-ruled by referee Liam O'Brien. Peter O'Connell put St. Michaels on the board after 6 minutes with Ciaran Lynch and Shane McDonnell following up with a point apiece.
St. Michaels completely controlled the third quarter with 5 unanswered points from Ciaran Lynch (3), Ronan Cassidy (1) and Shane McCormack (1) to go 0-8 to 0-4 in front.

Curraha rallied with their opening point of the half coming on 45 minutes and they found the back of the net a minute later to tie the match for the fifth time. Davy Lynch put St. Michaels back in front only for Curraha to reply immediately with two points on the trot to go back in front again. Ciaran Lynch whipped over a nice effort from play from outside the '45 to level once more, however Curraha put over what looked like the clinching score as the game entered injury time but St. Michaels kept plugging away and some indecision in the Curraha defence allowed the hard working Ronan Cassidy break up an attempted clearance and as he headed goal-wards he was felled out on the left and Ciaran Lynch salvaged a deserved point with his well executed free.

St. Michaels team and scorers: Darren O'Connell; Alan Reilly, Jamie Reilly, Mark Stafford; Ronan Cassidy 0-1, Matthew Halpin, Christopher Drew; Peter O'Connell 0-1, Felim O'Reilly; J.B. O'Reilly, Ciaran Lynch 0-6, Davy Lynch 0-1; Ray Reilly, Ronan Lynch, Shane McDonnell 0-1. Subs: Shane McCormack 0-1 for Felim O'Reilly, injured 15 minutes. Referee: Liam O'Brien.

Report and photo Pascal Reilly.  

Curraha Report

Curraha 1-08 St Michaels 0-11

Curraha will feel that another game passed them by in this Division 2 campaign even though they came away with the share of the spoils. Conor Moriarty opened the scoring for the HA men after three minutes with a point from play. He cancelled out St Michaels opening score with a placed ball while Gavin Coyle increased the lead to two points at the half way stage in the opening half. St Michaels replied with a point before Moriarty added another a free soon after. The remaining minutes of the half were tightly contested and although Curraha had plenty of chances, they never took them with St Michaels reducing the deficit to the minimum before the break.

St Michaels came out all guns blazing at the start of the second half and scored five points without reply as Curraha struggled to get some possession but Moriarty settled the ship with a free which was followed by a goal from him after Andrew Battersby put the ball on a plate for him to punch to the net. A St Michaels counter attack saw them get their noses back in front before Niall Murphy fisted over to draw the teams level for the fifth time. A monster pint into the wind from Brian Murphy put his side in front with injury time looming but a Ciaran Lynch free cancelled this score out. Moriarty looked like he had won the game with a 61stminute free but Lynch had the last say as his 66th minute free made sure the points would be split.

Curraha: L. McCarthy, S. Hogan, N. Murphy 0-1, M. Jackson, B. Joyce, S. McDermott, E. McGovern, N. Shortall, B. Murphy 0-1, S. O'Hanrahan, D. Toner, G. Coyle 0-1, D. Coyle, A. Battersby, C. Moriarty 1-05. Subs: S. Keogh for Joyce, M. Phelan for D. Coyle, P. O'Hanrahan for G. Coyle

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