*MATCH REPORT (St Cocas vs Milltown Sarsfields, 03/05/22)*

Playing their first away game since before Paddys Day, the Milltown Sarsfields U13 hurlers travelled to Cappagh to take on St Cocas, also a newly-formed amalgamated club. St Cocas have scored heavily in all of their outings to date, so we knew our backs would be under pressure. And so it proved in a first half where we were under the cosh with the Cocas midfielders getting on the ball and moving forward at pace. Our backs, in particular Luca O’Brien, Jack Sex, Dylan Buckley and Thomas Croke stood tall, however, with Ben Crampton in goals making a few important interventions, in the end conceding only 0-5, mostly from frees.

In midfield, Cillian Breslin got on a lot of ball and the forwards were making the most of their chances – Kyle Carter (0-1), Rory Tobin (0-2) and Fionn Clandillon (1-2) finished good moves and Daithi DeLasa got forward from midfield for a point to leave it 0-5 to 1-6 at the break.

The expected Cocas backlash came in the third quarter and they flew out of the blocks with a quick-fire 1-1 to level up the game. We were under real pressure now and, as so often this year, we turned to our bench with subs Daniel Gorey, Oisin Moore and Ronan Lacey all making strong impacts and Daithi, re-sited to centre-back getting on more ball. Fionn moved to centre forward and won a good free which he converted to leave the minimum between the sides going into the last 10 at which point the fight in this team shone through. All over the pitch we started winning hard balls and a quickfire burst of 2-1 from Fionn and Rory finished it off.

While not at our best, we managed to claw out a result to leave us unbeaten after four rounds of the league and looking forward to Maynooth at home on Sunday. While difficult to single anyone out given the collective effort, Fionn and Rory’s finishing, Ben’s coolness, Cillian’s workrate and Rob’s blocking and hooking contributed at key times.

Well done lads & speedy recovery to Myles D’arcy.

*Final Score: St Cocas 1-7 Milltown Sarsfields 3-8*

*TEAM:* Ben Crampton, Charlie Lyons, Cillian Breslin, Daithi De Lasa, Daniel Gorey, Dara Fogarty, Dylan Buckley, Eoghan Delahunty, Fionn Clandillon, Gary Malone, Jack Sex, Jayden Donoghue, Kyle Carter, Luca O'Brien, Oisin Moore, Robert Gleeson, Ronan Lacey, Rory Tobin, Ryan Crawford, Senan Clandillon, Thomas Croke

*SCORERS:* Daithi De Lasa (0-1), Fionn Clandillon (2-4, 1f), Kyle Carter (0-1), Rory Tobin (1-2)