Newcestown plan without duo for Aghada showdown

BY KIERAN McCARTHY

NEWCESTOWN are going all out to win a ticket to round three of the Cork SFC, according to manager Tom Wilson.

Taking on Aghada in a Round 2B game in Ballygarvan this Saturday evening, at 7.30pm, Newcestown are intent on righting the wrongs of their first round loss to CIT and working their way back into the championship.

The only dual rural club in the county, this is Newcestown’s first year juggling senior football and hurling teams, and it will take time to strike the right balance,

After the 1-11 to 0-12 SFC defeat to CIT on May 2nd, the focus then switched to senior hurling and the SHC round one game against St Finbarr’s on May 29th, a game Newcestown lost 2-15 to 1-15. It was only after that game did football return to the menu, as Wilson explains.

‘We didn’t see the players until two weeks ago, after the Barr’s hurling game, so what we find is that it’s hard to get a debrief session after a match because you’re handing over to another code with different people in charge,’ he said.

‘We know ourselves that we left the CIT game after us, we didn’t play particularly well, some fellas weren’t at the required level on the day and we kicked some bad wides as well. We should have been better and since we got back together again we’ve worked on what went wrong. There’s only one way to correct this now: to go and beat Aghada and get back into the championship.’

Newcestown will be without Cork U21 footballer Micheál McSweeney and Greg Murphy – both gone to the States for the summer – and James Desmond (on holidays) for Saturday’s game against an Aghada team that was no match for the Mid Cork divisional team in round one, losing 2-13 to 0-8.

‘They didn’t look particularly great against Muskerry but then again Muskerry are very strong so you wouldn’t read too much into that. Aghada are better than that result and their results last year suggest, so we know we’re in for a hard game,’ Wilson said.

‘We want to be in the draw for the next round of the championship and see where that takes us. We want to be playing championship football and hurling in August; that’s what makes the year worthwhile. To be there, we have to beat Aghada on Saturday. That’s the bottom line.’