Clonakilty Edge Thriller in Ahamilla
On Sunday March 22nd, Clonakilty played St James’s in their 2nd Carbery Junior A Hurling League match of 2026 at Ahamilla in near perfect conditions.
St James came flying out of the blocks and led by 3 points to nil after 2 minutes of play. Kieran Calnan, Shane Deasy and Mike Noonan had to work extremely hard in the full back line to try to stem the tide. After 3 minutes, Clon got on the scoresheet courtesy of a free by Brian White and this settled the team. Good work by Isa Khan and Jack O Mahony led to 2 great scores by Mark White to level things up after 5 minutes. St James got on top again for the next while and scored the next 4 points in a row before Mark White chipped in with another point on 14 minutes to leave Clon 3 behind.
Matt Murphy came on as a sub at this juncture with Cian O Donovan moving back into the full back where he was to have a positive impact as the game went on. Both teams exchanged two points each in the following few minutes, Clon’s scores coming from Mark and the ever energetic Fergal Murphy. 9 to 5 to St James now. Then a free by Brian followed by 2 excellent points from play by Brian and Fergal, ably assisted by Isa Khan, meant that there was just the minimum between the sides after 23 minutes to. St James scored from a free before the move of the match saw Matt Murphy blast the ball into the back of the net for the game’s first goal. Fergal then struck another beauty of a point on 29 mins. David O Sullivan and Jack O Mahony were really getting to grips with proceedings around the middle of the field now. St James finished the first half scoring with another free to leave the half time score at 1.9 to 11 to Clon. Patrick Murnane came on as a sub at half time for Isa.
St James started the 2nd half like they had the first and scored 3 of the first 4 points. Clon’s score came from Cillian White who was having another fine game for Clon at half back. James Campbell and Ciaran Crowley were hurling very well now too and we’re giving much needed protection to the full back line. Fionn McCarthy and Mark were both fouled for frees in the 39th and 40th minutes that Brian expertly converted. 1.12 to 0.15 now. Then St James scored 2 points from play in this ding dong battle. Gary Finn came on as a sub for Clon and played very well.
Unfortunately an altercation broke out between Mark White and the opposition full back which resulted in both players being shown red cards by the ref after consulting his umpire. David O ‘Sullivan then got on the scoresheet with a very good point after great approach work by Cillian and Jack. St James went ahead again with another point on 50 minutes. The game was on a knife edge.
Clon were lucky to have Shane Collins in goal as he was commanding everything in the air that St James launched in on him. Then Patrick Murnane scored a great point from play and this was followed by a free from Brian. St James weren’t finished however and they scored the next 2 points to lead again by 1. The decisive score of the match was scored in the 57th minute by Clon. Fergal won a great ball in the corner and played an intelligent ball along the ground into the square and the brave Fionn McCarthy expertly got to the ball first to flick it past the advancing keeper. Clon up by 2. St James scored another point in the 59th minute. Oisin Hassett came on to help close the match out and in a tense finale Clon hung on to make it 2 wins from 2. Congrats to all the squad and the backroom team of Seamus O ‘Brien, Liam Ryan, Brian Daly and Seán O’Sullivan.
Team was:
S. Collins, K. Calnan, M. Noonan, S. Deasy, C. White, C. Crowley, J. Campbell, J O’Mahony, D. O’Sullivan, C. O’Donovan, B. White, I Khan, F. Murphy, M. White, F. McCarthy. Subs were M. Murphy, P Murnane, G. Finn, O.Hassett, C. Coakley. Scorers were:
B. White 0.6 (0.5f), F. Murphy 0.3, M. White 0.3, M. Murphy 1.0, F. McCarthy 1.0, C. White 0.1, D. O’Sullivan 0.1, P. Murnane 0.1
