Midleton were deserving winners in our 1st hurling league game of the year when they had 7 points to spare last Sunday on the forest pitch in Rostellan. The first half was a cagey affair, plenty of rustiness on view, with more wides than scores being struck. Aghada hit 5 points in the opening half. Pearse O’Neill with the opener, 2 nice scores from play from Cian Fleming and two long range frees from Michael Russell making up the total. Midleton led by 2 however at the break after hitting 7 scores of their own against the wind in that opening half. The Aghada defence played well during the 1st 30 minutes espiceally corner backs, Tim Hartnett and Aiden O’Connell. The second half was a more lively and entertaining affair. Midleton got off to a flyer scoring 1-2 in the opening 3 minutes. Aghada needed a response and when Fleming was tripped trying to goal, he picked himself up and buried the resulting penalty. Charlie Terry hit a fine point from the puck out and Aghada looked to have settled. Unfortuatley at this point we started conceding too many frees. Midleton hit 5 placed balls between the sticks from the 5th to the 15th minute. Aghada had only 2 Russell frees themselves in reply, Shane Dorney and Terry drawing the fouls. So with 15 minutes to play we were 8 points down. Russell earned and converted 2 more frees, which were cancelled out by 2 fine scores from play from Midleton. Aghada tried to rally. Fleming pointed a free earned by Pearse as he drove in on goal. Next up Kevin O’Hanlon picked out Mark McCarthy with a lovely pass and the young forward pointed smartly. David Rice then was fouled and Fleming again pointed as the clock ticked into added time. 5 points down at this stage, any hope of a comeback was put to bed, with Midleton getting the last two scores of the game, two more well taken points from play. Next up we are away to Barryroe next Sunday at 12:30pm. Aghada Team and scorers – Ciaran O’Shea, Aiden O’Connell, Jake O’Donoghue, Tim Hartnett, Shane Dorney, Shane Wall, Mark McCarthy(0-1), Michael Russell (0-6, 6f), Jack McDonald, Kalen O’Donoghue, Charlie Terry (0-1), Aaron Stafford, Ronan Kennedy, Pearse O’Neill (0-1), Cian Fleming (1-4, 1-2 f). Subs Used Kevin O’Hanlon, David Rice, Mark Healy.