{"id":578770,"date":"2026-08-01T11:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T11:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/578770\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T11:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T11:50:11","slug":"premier-shc-midleton-off-to-strong-start-with-win-over-st-finbarrs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/578770\/","title":{"rendered":"Premier SHC: Midleton off to strong start with win over St Finbarr’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

Midleton 0-25<\/p>\n

\n

St Finbarr\u2019s 0-17<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s beaten finalists Midleton led almost all the way through as they opened their Co-op SuperStores Premier SHC campaign with victory over St Finbarr\u2019s at P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Rinn on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Beaten by Sarsfields in the final of the RedFM Hurling League last month, the Magpies were back in the form that had seen them win their nine regular games in that competition, assembling a 0-13 to 0-9 lead with the wind and then increasing it in the second half as the St Finbarr\u2019s challenge failed to properly ignite.<\/p>\n

An open game didn\u2019t always have championship bite, with neither goalkeeper called into serious action in terms of shot-stopping. While the Magpie had the better of the opening exchanges, with midfielders Mikey Finn and Clare native Killian McDermott both on target along with Conor Lehane frees and a beauty from Alex Quirke, the Barrs came back well.<\/p>\n

Ben Cunningham\u2019s dead had allowed them to stay in touch and he tied at 0-6 each with his fourth after goalkeeper Shane Hurley, Se\u00e1n Daly and Brian Hayes had linked well before the latter was fouled.<\/p>\n

William Buckley moved the Barrs – who were without the injured Jack Cahalane – in front for the first time with his second, but while Hayes\u2019 skyscraping catches gave the Barrs a valuable outlet, it was one they could not profit from. The county star went closest with a shot wide from a tight angle but Midleton reeled off five on the trot.<\/p>\n

\"Midleton'sMidleton’s Alex Quirke tussles with Ciar\u00e1n Doolan of St Finbarr’s. Picture: Howard Crowdy<\/p>\n

The impressive McDermott had two of those to bring his tally to four before Tommy O\u2019Connell fed Quirke for one and Ross O\u2019Regan benefited from good work by Pa White and David Cremin.<\/p>\n

Barrs midfielder John Wigginton Barrett might have been in for a goal from a Hayes lay-off but Ciarmhac Smyth averted the danger and Cremin\u2019s point made it 0-11 to 0-7.<\/p>\n

With the last four points of the half evenly shared, Midleton targeted a strong restart and they got it with McDermott\u2019s fifth point, followed by a majestic Paul Connaughton effort.<\/p>\n

When Ethan Twomey\u2019s long-ranger and another Cunningham free opened the Barrs\u2019 second-half account, it looked like the city side might push on and further erode the deficit but instead Midleton hit back.<\/p>\n

Lehane had not scored from play up to that point but conjured two marvellous efforts in as many minutes, the second while on his knees, and another free left them seven ahead, 0-18 to 0-11, with 21 minutes left.<\/p>\n

The Barrs did have two points from Conor Cahalane, who was lining out in a half-back role, but they were not able to work much in the way of goalscoring opportunities.<\/p>\n

\"Midleton'sMidleton’s Tommy O’Connell tries to control the ball, under pressure from St Finbarr’s Conor McCarthy. Picture: Howard Crowdy<\/p>\n

After Lehane followed his seventh and eighth points with a lovely assist for Mikey\u00a0 Finn to make it 0-23 to 0-14, Cunningham\u2019s long-range goal attempt from a free was saved by Brion Saunderson and outside of that green-flag chances were at a premium.<\/p>\n

Lehane finished with nine and it was his assist that allowed McDermott to cap his display with a sixth from play as they had eight to spare by the end.<\/p>\n

\n Scorers for Midleton: C Lehane 0-9 (0-6f), K McDermott 0-6, P Connaughton 0-3, M Finn, A Quirke 0-2 each, C Walsh, D Cremin, R O\u2019Regan 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

\n St Finbarr\u2019s: B Cunningham 0-8 (0-7 f), C McCarthy, W Buckley, C Cahalane 0-2 each, B Hayes, D Cahalane, E Twomey 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

\n MIDLETON: B Saunderson; T Dunlea, T O\u2019Leary Hayes, C Smyth; E McGrath, T O\u2019Connell. C Walsh; M Finn, K McDermott; P White, A Quirke, D Cremin; R O\u2019Regan, P Connaughton, C Lehane.<\/p>\n

\n Subs: C Beausang for O\u2019Regan (37), E Moloney for White (51), White for Connaughton (60+2).<\/p>\n

\n ST FINBARR\u2019S: S Hurley; C Doolan, S Daly, J Burns; C Cahalane, D Cahalane, J Murray; E Twomey, J Wigginton Barrett; B Cunningham, C McCarthy, J O\u2019Kelly; R Barrett, B Hayes, W Buckley.<\/p>\n

\n Subs: C Walsh for Wigginton Barrett (52, injured).<\/p>\n

\n Referee: W King (Banteer).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Midleton 0-25 St Finbarr\u2019s 0-17 Last year\u2019s beaten finalists Midleton led almost all the way through as they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15389,1964,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-578770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-cork-county-championship","tag-cork-gaa","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}