Division 1 HL: Mikey Finn leads the way in Midleton victory over Blackrock
Midelton's Cormac Beausang breaks past David O’Farrell of Blackrock. Picture: Noel Sweeney
Midleton’s winning streak run in the RedFM Division 1 Hurling League goes on, after they defeated Blackrock in Midleton on Tuesday evening.
All throughout it was closely fought, as both sides were without a number of key players, with sharpshooters Conor Lehane and Robbie Cotter both absent.
The Magpies’ lead peaked at nine in the first half but had fallen to three by the 41st minute, but they held out after a strong final quarter. The Rockies pushed hard in the first half but didn’t make enough use of the breeze in the second half, and while Midleton’s goals were the difference, three crucial saves from Brion Saunderson preserved a clean sheet and ensured the win.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter Mikey Finn and Cormac Walsh stretched the Midleton lead back out to six, but Blackrock carved open a decent goal chance when Michael O’Halloran and Sean Healy set up Ryan Sweeney, but Saunderson rushed out to intervene.
O’Halloran slotted over the 65 but again, Midleton were assured in response. Cremin chalked it off and Mikey Finn put a sideline cut between the posts, giving the Magpies an advantage of seven with three minutes to go.
Finn was excellent again at midfield for the hosts, while Tomas Dunlea and Seán O’Sullivan impressed in defence, and it was O’Sullivan who set up Midleton’s second green flag.
He did well to navigate his way through green and gold hooped jerseys, before providing a basketball-esque layup for Conor Morley, who crept in at the back post to bat to the net.
That pushed Midleton 2-8 to 0-8 after 22 minutes, and though they would stretch that by a further three points, the Rockies had it back to 2-11 to 0-11 at the break.
In the first half, all of Midleton’s attacking eight had scored from play besides Cormac Walsh – who was one of four players to break a hurley – but it took him only 11 seconds in the second half to add his name to the scoresheet.
While Midleton would be outscored 0-7 to 0-2 for the next 10 minutes, they would see it out in the final quarter.
The other Midleton goal, which had arrived in the 14th minute, was a pulled effort from Dave Cremin that pushed Midleton 1-5 to 0-3 ahead. They had started strong, scoring the first four points, but Blackrock got the gap down to two before the second goal, with Ryan Sweeney showing up well on his return from injury, and Niall Cashman excellent at centre-back.
Blackrock wouldn’t get closer than two points thereafter, though.
M Finn 0-9 (0-6 f, 0-1 sideline), D Cremin 1-1, C Morley 1-0, C Walsh 0-2, T Dunlea, S O’Sullivan, C Cronin, R O’Regan, E McGrath, C Beausang, P Connaughton, L Dineen 0-1 each.
K O’Keeffe (0-1 f), M O’Halloran (0-2 f, 0-1 65) 0-5 each, R Sweeney 0-4 (0-1 f), G Connolly (f), N Cashman, M O’Keeffe, F Coleman (f), D Meaney, PJ Linehan, S Healy 0-1 each.
B Saunderson; T Dunlea, C Smyth, S Smyth; S O’Sullivan, T O’Leary-Hayes, C Cronin; M Finn, C Walsh; R O’Regan, C Beausang; P Connaughton, D Cremin, C Morley.
L Dineen for S Smyth (8 inj), P Barrett for Morley (45), E Fraser for Cronin, A Mulcahy for Connaughton (both 53), E McCarthy for Beausang (60).
G Connolly; Jamie Ryan, Cathal Cormack, D Cormack; S Murphy, N Cashman, M O’Keeffe; D O’Farrell, K O’Keeffe; F Coleman, Ciaran Cormack, D Meaney; PJ Linehan, M O’Halloran, R Sweeney.
S Healy for M O'Keeffe (41), O McAdoo for Murphy, I O’Keeffe for Ciaran Cormack (both 55), L O’Sullivan for Sweeney, A Geary for O’Farrell (both 57).
S Stokes (Tullylease)
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