Mitchelstown 4-11

Gabriel Rangers 0-15

THIS wasn’t the start to their McCarthy Insurance Group Intermediate A Football Championship campaign Gabriel Rangers wanted, but they won’t reach for the panic button either.

Gabriels led this group opener in Ahiohill by 0-7 to 0-3 before Mitchelstown struck for three first-half goals to take control.

Behind 3-7 to 0-9 at the break, the Carbery club’s heads never dropped, and just when they were chipping away at Mitchelstown’s lead, Cork footballer Cathail O’Mahonyy, who later went off with a hamstring injury, scored a penalty to stretch the winners’ advantage to 4-7 to 0-12.

‘We’ve a lot of positives to take from that game. I feel, and the rest of the management feel, it’s a game we could have, or maybe should have, won,’ Gabriels manager Padraig Lynch explained.

‘We controlled the game very well in that first 20 or 22-minute spell, but the three goals definitely had an impact.

‘We went in at half time, regrouped, and came out well again in the second half.’

Without Cork footballer Paddy O’Driscoll and Chris Moynihan, who are in America, Gabriels have players to come back in and strengthen the team for their remaining Group 2 games against Dromtarriffe (August 15th) and St Finbarr’s (September 12th).

‘Our focus now is on the Dromtarriffe game. There’s no point looking back,’ Lynch added.

‘We’ll focus on the positives because there were a lot of them.

‘One thing I will say, and it’s something I’ve always said since I started with these lads, is they have great heart and great spirit. They have a great never-say-die attitude.

‘We kept chipping away and, if you look at it, there were seven or eight minutes to go and we were only five points down.

‘To be blunt, we just weren’t clinical enough towards the end of the game. If that had been slightly different, there could have been a different result.’

Eddie Goggin, Sean Kelleher, Ger O’Callaghan and Jordi O’Brien were all on target in those early stages, before Mitchelstown’s goals swung the game in their favour. Cormac Hyland and Ronan Murphy scored goals within a minute, as the north Cork club hit the front, 2-3 to 0-7. Shane Beston added a third goal for the winners.

Gabriels threatened in the second half, and even after O’Mahony’s penalty extended Mitchelstown’s lead to seven, Lynch’s men closed to within five, but wides cost them in the end.

The return of Paddy O’Driscoll would be a significant boost to the Gabriels attack before their next clash.

Scorers 

Mitchelstown: C O’Mahony 1-4 (1 tp, 1-0 pen, 1f); S Beston 1-1; R Murphy, C Hyland 1-0 each; A O’Brien 0-2 (1f), Conor Walsh, Cathal Walsh, J Sheehan, M Walsh 0-1 each.

Gabriel Rangers: S Kelleher 0-5 (1 tpf); J O’Brien, E Goggin (2f), K O’Driscoll 0-3 each; G O’Callaghan 0-1.

Mitchelstown: Luke Hanna; Lorcan Finn, Fionn Herlihy, Eoin Geary; Killian Roche, Ronan Murphy, Colin McNamara; Sean Walsh, Cormac Hyland; Stevie Kenneally, Shane Beston, Cathal Walsh; Aaron O’Brien, Conor Walsh, Cathail O’Mahony.

Subs: James Sheehan for C O’Mahony (43, inj), Luke Keane for McNamara (48), Michael Walsh for O’Brien (53), Pa Magee for Kenneally (53), James Mullins for Roche (58).

Gabriel Rangers: Liam Hegarty; Liam Hodnett, David O’Regan, Ronan Roycroft; Darragh O’Shea, Luka Bowen, Jordi O’Brien; Killian O’Brien, Sean Kelleher; Ger O’Callaghan, Milan Vearncombe, Gearoid Coughlan; Eoin O’Brien, Keith O’Driscoll, Eddie Goggin.

Subs: Danny McSweeney for Roycroft (ht), Fionn Hurley for Coughlan (ht), Lorcan O’Brien for Vearncombe (50).

Referee: John Enright (Glengarriff).