Dr. Harty Cup Hurling Q-Final Replay – Our Lady’s Templemore 1-16 Midleton CBS 0-6

Our Lady’s, Templemore 1-16 Midleton CBS 0-6

By Jackie Cahill for the Irish Examiner newspaper

Thursday, January 27, 2011

OUR LADY’S, Templemore produced a much-improved performance to storm past Midleton CBS in a one-sided Dr Harty Cup quarter-final replay in Cahir yesterday. The Tipperary outfit ran out 13-point winners to seal a place in the last four for the first time since 2002. And they will meet another Cork side, Charleville CBS, as they hunt for a first Harty Cup success since 1978. At half-time yesterday, they led 1-7 to 0-5 and it was a solid platform to work with, having played against a strong breeze in the opening half. And it was all one-way traffic in the second half as Our Lady’s tacked on another nine points while Midleton grabbed just one, a free from Barry Lawton. Captain Conor Lehane, who scored 2-9 in the drawn game, was badly off-colour. Lehane managed just three points, two from frees, and hit five of wasteful Midleton’s six first-half wides, with Lawton responsible for three of his side’s six wides in the second-half. Our Lady’s, meanwhile, were clinical and finished with scoring contributions from seven different players, as top scorer Liam McGrath notched six points to add to the 14 he banged over in the drawn match.

The Loughmore-Castleiney trio of McGrath, cousin John and Liam Treacy were in superb form. At corner back, Tom Meade was superb, while Thomas Hamill at centre-back showed good form. Lehane, despite missing many chances from placed balls and play, never stopped trying and pulled off a couple of spectacular catches. But, from Midleton puckouts, he was constantly policed by a pair of Templemore defenders and no other forwards were good enough to step up to the plate with Lehane well shackled. Goalkeeper William McCarthy did emerge with a huge degree of credit after pulling off a number of good saves to keep the score down. With eight minutes on the watch, McCarthy did well to block Shane Hassett’s rasping shot, but Our Lady’s full-forward Jason Bergin reacted quickest to tap home the only goal of the game.

Liam McGrath almost added a second for Templemore in the 17th minute but he was first denied by McCarthy and then the crossbar. And six minutes after half-time, McCarthy did well again as he deflected a fierce Liam McGrath penalty over the bar, awarded after the same player had been hauled down by Midleton corner back Neil O’Regan.

Scorers for Our Lady’s Templemore: L McGrath 0-6 (5f, 0-1 pen), J Bergin 1-1, M Kelly 0-3, J McGrath & S Hassett 0-2 each, L Treacy & C O’Riordan 0-1 each.

Scorers for Midleton: B Lawton (1f) and C Lehane (2f), 0-3 each.

OUR LADY’S, TEMPLEMORE: P Guerins; J Nyland, K Kennedy, T Meade; L Mullally, T Hamill, J Moloney; L Treacy, C O’Riordan; L McGrath, S Hassett, J McGrath; M Kelly, J Bergin, O Ryan.
Subs: B Kennedy for Mullally (57), P Meade for Ryan (58), D Donnelly for T Meade (60+1), A O’Riordan for Hassett (60+2), M Hogan for Kelly (60+2).

MIDLETON CBS: W McCarthy; D O’Brien, K Burke, N O’Regan; A Gosnell, L Coughlan, I Kennefick, D Cahill, C Walsh; D Walsh, B Lawton, C Lehane; D Morrissey, M Hennessy, P White.
Subs: W Leahy for White (37), D Dineen for Hennessy (58).

Referee: S Hourigan (Limerick)