Tuesday night our U21 hurlers faced off against St. Dominic’s in front of a strong mixed crowd in Ballyhooly, in the first game of the round robin series of the Championship this year. With an overcast all day, it managed to hold up for the entire game. As the crowd filled in both teams warmed up in close conditions but dry all the same. Justin Murphy would take charge of the game and would be called into action a few times. Fermoy lined up with a new and young team, only one player was unelidable through age but the panel gained as many as 6 new players. Dominic’s were in a similar position not losing many players and the previous fixture last year went right down to the wire. Dominic’s pointed first but Fermoy replied in the best way possible when after pointing, Shane O’Keeffe rifled home from a distance out taking the wind out of then hyped up opponents. Fermoy went on to tag on two more before the green flag was raised again. This time leaving the score at 2-3 to 0-6 after 20 minutes of action. Justins authority was called into play when a Fermoy player was tackled high off the ball causing him to leave the pitch as a blood sub, but failed to card the player in the wrong. The teams tightened up coming into half time and left the score line at 2-4 to 0-7. The first half was nominated by by both sets of mid-fielders and when Nathan Collins and Eric Delaney where on time we ticked at our best. Greg Lardner, a newcomer to the U21 grade, was flying in all sectors of the pitch as too were the young lads newly introduced to the grade like Luke Aherne, David Lardner, and Sean McCarthy. Shane Aherne commanded and captained the half forward line even as he wasn’t 100%. The second half was always going to be close and got even more tense when Ross O’Sullivan picked up a second yellow and saw his way to the bench only 5 minutes after the interval. Fermoy rallied around and prepared themselves for a battle for the next 25 minutes. Entering the last quarter Fermoy lead 2-10 to 0-11 but Dominics were starting to build up a steam but through strong defensive foothold in Ronan Morrison and co. they kept the goal mouth protected. John Wales would be called into action twice in the final 10 minutes keeping them at bay. David O’Callaghan, Shane O’Keeffe in the forward made way for Colm Hurley and Cian O’Carroll while Gary Mahon made way for Calum Frawley, all to come in and see out the final few minutes. Dominics eventually found the net to bring it to a 3 point game heading into the very last few minutes but again the young team managed to hold them out and even managed to to put the ball over Dominics crossbar once more in injury time with a huge strike from Eric Delaney. Fermoy took away the all important win at a score line of 2-12 to 1-11. A gutsy performance put in but the 15 and the lads introduced and saw out the game. We will now go on to face Ballygiblin in the next round of the Championship and will certainly want to put in another brilliant game. The team lined out as following ; J Wales, R Morrison, G Mahon, L Aherne, G Lardner, R O’Sullivan, Sean McCarthy, E Delaney, N Collins, D Lardner, S Aherne, D Flynn, S O’Keeffe, D O’Callaghan and Adam Creed. Subs used; Colm Hurley for D O’Callaghan, Calum Frawley for Gary Mahon and Cian O’Carroll for Shane O’Keeffe. Blood sub used Jack Gallagher for David Lardner