Midleton gear up for the Harty Cup final against Ardscoil Rís as Christians fall just short

Midleton CBS 2-27 Our Lady’s Templemore 0-16

THE scoreline tells the entire story here, magnificent Midleton CBS are through to the Dr Harty Cup final for the first time in 12 years after demolishing the holders at Clonmel on Saturday afternoon.

The East Cork school produced an exhibition of score-taking at its very best and they will look forward to the final in three weeks time against the favourites, Ardscoil Rís with plenty of confidence.

A blistering start to both halves was the key and they had very influential contributors throughout the field.

Liam O’Shea from the Lisgoold club gave a gargantuan display in the number 11 jersey and his haul of 0-13 illustrated the impact that he had on the proceedings, particularly in the second-half.

Liam Gosnell wasn’t far behind with 0-9 to his credit while the brace of goals were superbly executed by Joe Stack and Arthur Nganou. Stack fired over a few tasty points as well and he was always a handful for the Templemore defence.

Seán O’Sullivan and Aaron Walsh Barry were superb in defence while further out Ger Millerick put in a huge shift and illustrated again what a great prospect he is.

It was just a two-point game at the break, 2-8 to 0-12 and Midleton CBS were now involved in a different type of game altogether.

The interval was a time for reflection and an opportunity to reinvent themselves and that’s exactly what they did.

When they resumed, O’Shea and Gosnell shared four points between them and the gap was six again. That was just the start that they required again and it was all Midleton now. O’Connor got a point back from a free for Templemore but O’Shea was now having his finest hour in a Midleton CBS jersey.

Everything he touched turned to gold and he split the posts from all distances and angles, both from frees, a 65 and a wonderful sideline effort.

Gosnell kept up the good work too and after 50 minutes it was 2-19 to 0-15.

There was no stopping Middleton now and in the entire second-half Templemore could only muster up four points from frees, all from O’Connor.

Scorers: Midleton CBS: L O’Shea 0-13 (0-6 f, 0-1 sl), L Gosnell 0-9 (0-5 f), J Stack 1-2, A Nganou 1-1, K Farmer 0-1, C Hickey 0-1.

Our Lady’s: G O’Connor 0-10 f, J Devaney 0-3, A Ormonde 0-1, K Maher 0-1, S Doyle 0-1 f.

MIDLETON CBS: A Power (Midleton), D Hogan (Killeagh), S O’Sullivan (Midleton), S O’Leary Hayes (Midleton ), A Walsh Barry (Carrigtwohill), J Landers (Killeagh), G Millerick (O’Neill’s), K Farmer (Midleton), D Moran (Kiltha Óg), L O’Shea (Lisgoold), L Gosnell (Carrigtwohill), A Nganou (Midleton) C Hickey (Lisgoold).

Subs: O Broderick (Killeagh) for A Nganou (h-t, inj), M McCarthy (Aghada) for G Millerick (55m), G Carroll (Midleton), for J Stack (57m), D Scanlon (Midleton), for E O’Sullivan (58m), P Hassett (Killeagh) for C Hickey (60m).

Ardscoil Rís 0-17 CBC 2-8

A TOTAL of 100 years on from the school’s only other appearance in the Dr Harty Cup final, CBC came close to matching that achievement in Mallow on Saturday but ultimately had to give way to a slightly stronger Ardscoil Rís side.

The Sidney Hill outfit battled hard and with 54 minutes on the clock they led by 2-8 to 0-13, following a third point from play by corner-forward Owen McCarthy, but they would not score again as Ardscoil dug deep to reel off four points on the trot.

CBC manager Donal O’Mahony — who would have more joy as a Cork hurling selector later that evening — acknowledged that the Limerick school’s experience gave them a slight edge.

“It did, I suppose,” he said, “they’ve been there before whereas we haven’t.

“It was a battle right to the end, but I suppose that experience was a help. We’re gutted, we felt we put ourselves in a great position but maybe the effort to put us in that position maybe cost us, we ran out of legs a small bit and they finished strongly.

“I said during the week, when you get to this stage of the competition you’re going to come up against good teams, no shadow of a doubt they’re a good team and that’s what you expect good teams to do.

“When the game was in the balance, they got vital scores and you have to admit that, over the 60 minutes, they were the better team. We’ve no excuses, no complaints.”

Scorers for Ardscoil Rís: P O’Brien 0-8 (0-5 f), R Considine 0-3, R Connolly, D Woulfe, R Duff, C O’Neill, C Bourke, B O’Connor 0-1 each.

CBC: T O’Connell 0-4 f, O McCarthy 0-3, R Downey, I Daly 1-0 each, D Hanlon 0-1.

CBC: D Heffernan (Mallow); C Flynn (Na Piarsaigh), P Hennessy (Mallow), A Cronin (Glen Rovers); C Murphy (Na Piarsaigh), B Hartnett (Douglas), C O’Donovan (Douglas); D Hanlon (Blarney), K Finn (Midleton); T O’Connell (Midleton), R Downey (Glen Rovers), S Barrett (Blarney); O McCarthy (Inniscarra), I Daly (Lismore, Waterford), P Power (Blarney).

Subs: B Slattery (Mallow) for Power (44), D O’Mahony (Sarsfields) for Murphy (58).

Referee: R McGann (Clare).