No respite for our players as the day after the dinner dance they had to travel to Kinsale for our opening league fixture of 2018. No sign of a hangover (neither real nor proverbial) in the opening 12 minutes as we raced into a 4 point to no score lead. Pearse O’Neill and Shane Bennett had a point each from play and Cian Fleming converted 2 frees. The home side slowly got going and the rest of the half was even-stephen with Aghada going in at half time 2 points to the good on a 7 v 5 scoreline. 3 more Fleming frees completed the 1st half scoring for Aghada while 4 of Kinsale’s 5 points also came from placed balls in very difficult underfoot conditions. On resumption, 2 points in quick succession from Pearse O’Neill restored the 4 point lead.  On 10 minutes a Cian Fleming ’45 cancelled out Kinsales 1st second half point. Aghada didn’t score again until there was only 5 minutes to play and at that point the lead was again down to 2 points. O’Neill repeated his earlier trick and hit 2 more points in 2 minutes to restore the 4 point advantage. Kinsale finished stronger kicking the last 2 points and floating in a couple of frees in the hope of snatching a winning goal, but Aghada held on for a deserved victory. Along with Pearse, Shane Wall, Tommy Donoghue and Marcus Leahy were to the fore for Aghada, who will be happy to come away with the 1st two points that were on offer for the season.

Team and scorers – Ciaran O’Shea, Tim Hartnett, Shane Wall, Jake O’Donoghue, David Rice, Tommy O’Donoghue, Aaron Berry, Marcus Leahy, Conor O’Driscoll, Daniel Creedon, Ronan Kennedy, Charlie Terry, Shane Bennett (0-1), Cian Fleming (0-6, 4f,1 ’45), Pearse O’Neill (0-5). Subs Used – Aaron Stafford, Jordan Tynan, Eoin Healy.