Valley Rovers U21 hurlers in clinical form as Ballymartle bow out

Valley Rovers 1-25 Ballymartle 1-5 

Valley Rovers proved far too strong for a youthful Ballymartle side in the Ross Oil South East U21 A Hurling Championship at Riverstick on Friday night.

The victory sees the Innishannon side qualify for the semi-final, where they will play the runners-up in Group Two, which includes Carrigaline, Courcey Rovers and Kinsale.

In truth, Valley Rovers never looked in trouble, as they led by 0-8 to no score after 18 minutes. However, full credit must go to a young Ballymartle side, who battled gamely over the hour.

Sean McEntee registered Valley Rovers' first score after two minutes.

By the seventh minute, they had increased their lead to four points as Kevin Dart O'Flynn (2) and Donnacha O'Connell added to their tally.

Eoin Harte had to be brave in the ninth minute as he saved a close-range shot from Eoin Galgey.

Meanwhile, Ronan Sheehan was unlucky not to open his side's account with some difficult frees.

Valley Rovers led by 0-8 to no score after 18 minutes, with a point from O'Connell the pick of the scores, before Sheehan deservedly got Ballymartle's first score of the evening a minute later.

Galgey replied moments later, as the hard-working Lewis Keohane Kiely found the target to leave the score at 0-9 to 0-2. From there to the break, Valley Rovers continued to dominate, as former Cork minor Joe Twohig claimed 1-3 to leave his side leading by 1-13 to 0-3.

The second half followed a similar pattern. However, a fine goal from Sheehan in the 37th minute gave the home crowd something to shout about.

Nevertheless, the gap was far too great for Ballymartle to close. When Twohig departed injured, Galgey stepped into the breach, claiming three of the Innishannon men's final five points to help ease his side into the semi-final, as Ballymartle bowed out.

Scorers for Valley Rovers: J Twohig 1-6 (0-1 f, 0-1 65), K Dart O'Flynn 0-5, E Galgey (0-2 f), S McEntee 0-4 each, H O'Sullivan, D O'Connell 0-2 each; D Carthew, T McGrath 0-1 each.

Ballymartle: R Sheehan 1-3 (0-3 f), L Keohane Kiely, L Hennessy 0-1 each.

VALLEY ROVERS: M Kelleher; N Daly, T McGrath, A Browne; A Slattery, E Guinane, D Brady; D O'Connell, S Ryan; H O'Sullivan, K Dart O'Flynn, D Carthew; S McEntee, J Twohig, E Galgey.

Subs: L Casey for J Twohig (42 inj), E O'Sullivan for H O'Sullivan (47).

BALLYMARTLE: E Harte; K Sheehan, E Deasy, F O'Keeffe; C Deasy, R Deasy, S Looney, A Harte, O Sheedy; L Keohane Kiely, L Hennessy, D O'Leary; T Cummins, R Sheehan, C Dineen.

Subs: K Lyons and M O'Reilly for T Cummins and C Dineen (35), R McCarthy for E Deasy (38), E McDonald for O Sheedy (56).

Referee: Alan O'Connor (Ballygarvan).