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Youghal 1-16 Whitegate 0-8
WHEN Ian Fahy was ruled out with appendicitis, it represented a serious blow to Whitegate, and while they stayed in contention for a long time, the Cork side were rampant in the final quarter.
At least two more Whitegate players had been sick in the run up to the game, but in fairness Youghal were short two regular starters and had been missing four for the draw.
Sunday was a terrible day in Fermoy, heavy rain falling both before and all the way through the match, although the pitch held up as well as could be expected.
Speaking afterwards, Whitegate manager David Considine said he didn’t want to put the defeat down to the poor health of some of his charges. “I don’t want to be making excuses, we hurled as hard as we could,” he said.
The first half was quite even and entertaining with some very good spells of hurling.
Whitegate, who actually led for most of the half, were first on the board, with George Waterstone pointing an early free.
After a quarter of an hour they still led, 0-4 to 0-3, following another point from Waterstone and shortly afterwards Eoin Quirke sauntered up the field, giving them a two-point cushion.
However Youghal played some great hurling in the last ten minutes or so and their goal came in the 23rd minute.
The hard working Alan Frahill O’Connor caught a great ball, gave a handpass to Leigh Desmond who floated it into the goalmouth. When the ball broke it fell to Andrew Curtin who struck it past Andrew Fahy.
The final score of the half again came from Quirke, in injury time, leaving his side four behind, 1-8 to 0-7.
In the drawn game Whitegate had also trailed by four points at half time, so it wasn’t really a crisis for them, although they couldn’t afford to let the gap grow much further.
On the resumption Youghal began to dominate, but missed three scoring chances in the first three minutes.
Frahill O’Connor and Waterstone exchanged points keeping the gap at four points, but when Youghal were awarded a penalty, albeit a somewhat soft one, in the 42nd minute, it looked like they might pull away. Leigh Desmond struck it with some venom, but his effort was relatively close to Andrew Fahy, who deflected it away for a 65.
In the 18th minute Frahill O’Connor had a great point, stretching the gap to five. Whitegate needed to respond, but couldn’t and with eight minutes of normal time left, Brendan Ring stretched the gap to six.
Youghal were fully dominant in the closing minutes, taking on more scores and the final score didn’t reflect how competitive the game had been in the first half.
While the fade out might have been disappointed, Considine wasn’t too downcast afterwards. “At the start of the year we set out to win the intermediate, we won the intermediate and anything after that was a bonus.”
Whitegate were well served by Andrew Fahy, although the move to bring him outfield in the closing stages didn’t make much impact, Brendan Bugler and Eoin Quirke.
It was an impressive display by Youghal with Ollie Dempsey, Leigh Desmond, Alan Frahill O’Connor and Brendan Ring among their stars.
oughal 1-16 Whitegate
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
