6/16/2024 - Intermediate Championship – Aidan McAnespies vs Cork Boston

 

By Neil McEnaney

Full Time Score:

Aidan McAnespies: 0-16

Cork: 1-16

 

Cork and Aidan McAnespies both came into this game after winning their first round in previous weeks against Shannon Blues and Connemara Gaels respectively. Cork took the lead early and were able to keep the Macs at arms length for the game.

 

With just 2minutes on the clock, Sean McCarthy got the better of his man before he was pulled to the ground by Peter O’Flaherty. The referee judged it to be deliberate as he was through on goal and issued the Macs man an early black card. Eoin Walsh opened the scoring for Cork with the resulting free.

 

With the man down, McAnespies wisely chose to sit in and play defensively and attack Cork on the break. It nearly worked to perfection with Tiernan Saul getting a goal chance that was well saved by Kieran McEvoy. Cork created chances, but will feel their shooting and decisions in the scoring zone let them down.

 

By the time the black card time was up, the Macs had kept themselves in touching distance of Cork, only down by 3 points. When the Macs got equal men on the field, they started to chip away at the Cork lead. The long range kicking of Peter O’Connell brought the Macs within a point just before half time.

 

Cork weren’t done though, and a great move left McCarthy one on one with his man who he took on and finished into the net just on the stroke of half time.

 

Half Time Score:

Aidan McAnespies: 0-8

Cork Boston: 1-9

 

McAnespies started the scoring in the second half with O’Flaherty scoring a nice point. O’Flaherty was in trouble with the ref again unfortunately as he stopped a Cork man running off the ball and picked up a second black card to end his day early.

 

Cork continued to be dangerous up front, with Fergal O’Brien, Fiedhlem Joyce and Eoin Walsh in particular causing a lot of problems in the Macs defence. Eoin Gormley was sprung from the bench and his speed and athleticism caused issues for the Corks defence. Cork dropped their spare man in front of him to shut up shop. Macs kept within touching distance but weren’t able to get the vital goal to level it up.

 

Man of the Match: Eoin Walsh

 

Teams and Scorers:

Aidan McAnespies: Jack Lake, Tom McKeon, Aidan O’Malley, Gearoid Stones, Joe Hagan (0-3), Peter O’Flaherty (0-1), Sean McGovern, Stephen Ward (0-2), Jack Lennon (0-1), Peter O’Connell (0-3), Jonathan McGourty, Tiarnan Saul (0-1), Padraig Dillon (0-1)

Subs: Eoin Gormley (0-3)

 

Cork: Kieran McEvoy, Ronan Hurley, Emmet Smith, Paddy O’Driscoll, Sean O’Riordain, Eoghan O’Neill, Shawn Sullivan, Kieran Hurley, Liam O’Driscoll, Feidhelm Joyce (0-4), Eoin Walsh (0-6), Fergal O’Brien (0-4), Sean McCarthy (1-2)

 

Referee: Neil McEnaney