There’s an old Irish saying – ‘a good start is half the battle.’
Well never was it more in evidence in a sporting context than in last Wednesday’s Dr. Harty Cup quarter-final meeting between De La Salle of Waterford and Midleton CBS in Cappoquin.
After an early exchange of pointed frees, De La Salle then fired an unanswered salvo of 1-4 to open up a seven point lead with little more than the opening quarter played to put themselves firmly on course for the final four of this illustrious competition, which they last won in 2008.
Indeed both these schools have a rich and successful history in this famous cup, Midleton winning it on three occasions and De La Salle, twice (back to back in 2007 and 2008), and both came into this tie after impressing on their way through the groups stages to make it to this the final eight.
While this game wasn’t the ‘walk in the park’ that the 11 point winning margin may suggest, there is no doubting whatsoever that the Waterford City side were the better team on the day and thoroughly deserved to advance to set up an all Waterford semi-final with Coláiste na nDéise in less than two weeks time.
Right from the off one could tell that De La Salle were up for this and as a result they won the physical battles hands down, a facet of the game that was always going to be crucial on a very soft Cappoquin sod.
With conditions much more becoming to an April or May day instead of January, it was no surprise that a large crowd made their way to the West Waterford venue to enjoy a clash between two of their respective county’s most respected hurling nurseries.
EARLY GOAL CRUCIAL
De La Salle, with the aid of a slight breeze in the opening-half, opened the scoring in the opening minute from a free from the deadly Darragh Flynn, who would go on to be the real star of the show for the Waterford City men – scoring an excellent 0-12, with all but one of those scores coming from placed balls, only to be pegged back inside a minute by Midleton’s Cormac Walsh. The next quarter of an hour or so then belonged to De La Salle and it opened with another brace of frees from Flynn before De La Salle struck for the game’s opening goal, a score that was to prove crucial in the overall context of the game.
Dessie Hutchinson was the architect as he cut in from the right and when his well struck shot was parried by Midleton netminder, Coran Swayne, Tom Mullally was on hand to billow the Midleton net from close range. A further brace from O’Flynn soon followed, one from play and one from a placed ball, to leave the Waterford men in possession of a healthy, 1-5 to 0-1 lead, with 18 minutes on the clock.
Midleton did come in to it in the second quarter and points from Stephen Treacy, Shane Hegarty and Pa White kept them hanging on, but four bad wides certainly didn’t help their cause nor did two fines saves from De La Salle goalkeeper, Mark Sheridan, when the Midleton attack went for goals.
A further brace of pointed frees from Flynn and his opposite number, Cormac Walsh, ensured that the first-half ended with the Water-ford side holding the advantage on a score of 1-7 to 0-6, but with the game very much still in the balance.
VITAL RESTART
The restart was always going to be crucial in this game and a good start for the East Cork men would have meant that this game was very much up for grabs, thankfully though for the De La Salle men this didn’t happen and instead it was they who broke quickest from the second-half blocks to stamp their authority on the game once more and push themselves towards victory.