MITCHELSTOWN OVERCOME MILLSTREET IN POOR CONDITIONS

MITCHELSTOWN 1 .13
MILLSTREET 0 11

Mitchelstown advanced to the 4th round of this year’s IFC with a hard fought 5 points win over last year’s semi-finalists in wet and windy conditions back in Churchtown last Saturday evening. Mitchelstown went into this game very weary of their opponent’s and expected a backlash after their bad performance against Glanworth the previous week, straight from the throw in Millstreet laid down a marker and had Mitchelstown on the back foot they kicked two points in the opening 5 minutes and had Mitchelstown struggling to get any foot hold in the game only for some good defending by the full back line of Finn wren and Coffey they could have found themselves further behind then on the 10th minute a well kicked point by Dave Dineen settled Mitchelstown down a good move involving O Sullivan Dineen was eventually kicked over the bar to leave the score 2 a piece after 15 minutes then Michael Walsh kicked a good point on the 18th min to put Mitchelstown ahead this was followed by two good points by Shane Beston and Pa Magee on the 20th and 22nd min but back came Millstreet and 2 points by their inter county player Cathal Crowley had them level with 5 min of the half to go this spurred Mitchelstown in to action a move started on the 30 yard line by Captain Stephen Fox who passed to Shane Beston who got by his marker and passed to Michael Walsh who put Fox through and he blasted the ball to the back of the Millstreet net a great team goal at any level Mitchelstown were finishing very strong a well taken free by Liam Keane in the dying minutes of the half left Mitchelstown leading at the break 1 06 to 0 5.Millstreet started the 2nd half as they did the first and quickly reduced the gap to 2 in the opening 5 min and were piling on who are well drilled and experienced outfit the pressure but Dineen dropping back and some good defending by Finn O Sullivan and Magee Mitchelstown were still in front and started to get a grip back on the game again after the early onslaught by Millstreet two superb points by Sean Walsh and especially Liam Keane who won a good ball out on the corner shrugged off the close attention of the corner back and kicked a wonderful point to restore Mitchelstown 4 point lead with 18 minutes to go that score drove Mitchelstown forward and an equally good point by Pa Magee on the 43rd min this was followed by two more points by Shane Cahill and Jason Cott this had Mitchelstown leading by 7 with 12 min remaing while Millstreet tried hard to the bitter end they could not breach the Mitchelstown rear-guard who defended very well in the closing stages of the game they reduced the gap to 4 but then a great individual score by Dylan Price on the 58th min finished the game as a contest and Mitchelstown ran out winners by 5 Mitchelstown will now advance to the next round where they will play Donnacha O Connnor’s Ballydesmond who are a well drilled and experienced outfit while the Mitchelstown mentors will be delighted with the win they will hope that game will have knocked the rustiness that was apparent this was due to having not played 9 weeks since last Championship game but to be fair the team gave everything some great scores and the introduction of the subs played a big part on the win. TEAM L HANNA B COFFEY K WREN L FINN S O SULLIVAN S FOX CAPTAIN (1 0) P MAGEE(0 2) S WALSH(0 3)S BESTON(0 1) M WALSH(0 1) D DINNEN(0 1) J SHEEHAN C O MAHONEY S CAHILL(0 1) L KEANE(0 2) SUBS L FLYNN 39TH MIN J COTT 46TH MIN (0 1) P MOLLOY 49TH MIN D PRICE 50TH MIN (0 1) L MOLAN 54TH MIN