Castleview 4-4 Corkbeg
Corkbeg traveled away to play Castleview on a blustery Sunday morning in O Sullivan Park.
Corkbeg were playing against the wind in tough conditions for the opening 45 minutes. The home side started better and had control of the opening 15 minutes, with Corkbeg’s only chances coming from counter-attacks in the first quarter of an hour. The home side opened the scoring after 20 minutes, when a curling free kick from James Nagle swirled with the wind into the top right hand corner.
5 minutes later, Corkbeg equalised. Daniel Creedon’s long ball found Cein O Driscoll on the wing, who beat his man and drilled a cross into the six yard box, where Alan Hogan ferociously fired home to level things up.
Corkbeg were like a new team now and they pushed on in search of another goal. This came on the 25th minute, as Jordan Ryan fired home from close distance to put the away side 2-1 up.
A few minutes later and Corkbeg were on the attack again. A corner whipped in saw the Castleview keeper Ryan McCarthy, punch the ball clear, whilst catching the man, but no penalty was awarded. From this clearance, Castleview broke up the pitch, out to the right hand side, where they crossed the ball to the front post and the ball was struck home by Josh Lombardi to level things up.
The remainder of the half petered out, with no clear-cut opportunities being created. It was 2-2 at half time.
For the second half, it was Castleview who were playing against the wind. Two minutes into the second half, the home side scored as Josh Lombardi grabbed his second. The Castleview midfielder played a defence-splitting through ball that played Lombardi one-on-one with John Manning, and the striker made no mistake as he coolly dispatched into the bottom corner.
Soon after, Alan Hogan had his effort well saved by McCarthy at his near post. However, on the hour mark, Daniel Creedon headed home Alan Hogan’s corner to level things up, once again.
Few minutes later, the Castleview striker broke through again, and he went around the Corkbeg keeper, and hit the deck, with the keeper adjudged to have brought the striker down. James Nagle stood up and sent the keeper the wrong way, to put the North Siders 4-3 up, with 20 minutes left on the clock.
With ten minutes remaining, a clash between Jordan Ryan and former Corkbeg man Danny O Donoghue saw Ryan receive a yellow card, but O Donoghue picked up a straight red card, with Castleview now down to ten men.
With a few minutes to go, following a collision with the Castleview striker and his own man, Chris Smith, Corkbegs Danny Creedon left the field with a knee injury.
With more or less one minute left in the game, Cein O Driscoll scored straight from a corner to level the proceedings, for one final time, much to the delight of the Whitegate men. It finished up 4-4 in O Sullivan Park.