Adrigole aiming high after advancing to county intermediate A football semi-final

Adrigole  0-7    

St Vincent’s 0-5

TOM LYONS REPORTS

ADRIGOLE are back in a county football semi-final for the first time in 11 seasons – and now they need to move their game to the next level, insists manager Tim O’Sullivan.

With a display of grit, guts, determination and fitness, the Beara side beat St Vincent’s in the quarter-final of the Bon Secours Intermediate A Football Championship at rain-sodden Inchigeela on Saturday.

‘We’ll be meeting Mitchelstown now in the semi-final and we will have to go up another step for that one,’ O’Sullivan says. ‘We said we wanted to improve on last season when we reached the quarter-final and we have done that. We haven’t played in a semi-final since 2012, when our neighbours Castletownbere beat us in Cahermore and went on to win the county.’

Playing with the advantage of driving rain and swirling breeze into the scoring goal, Adrigole got off to a great start with three unanswered points in the opening quarter. Charlie O’Sullivan opened the scoring for Adrigole and Cian O’Neill and Seán O’Shea followed with two more points, all within the opening 11 minutes. The city side came more into the game in the second quarter and when they cut the lead to a single point, 0-3 to 0-2, by half time, with points from an impressive Blake Murphy, Adrigole looked in serious trouble.

‘That was some battle out there,’ Timmy O’Sullivan agrees. ‘We really had to work for that one, especially in the second half when Vincent’s really came at us. The players showed marvellous commitment and work rate out there.’

After St Vincent’s equalised in the 33rd minute, it was Adrigole who retook the lead with a breakaway point from the talented David Harrington, the only other score in the third quarter.

In the 46th minute a defensive error in the Vincents’ defence saw the ball, kicked by Cormac O’Neill, hopping over the crossbar, nearly into the net. The closing ten minutes were fought out in a welter of excitement as Vincent’s cut the lead to a single point again, from sub Gerry Kelleher. Back came gallant Adrigole with a David Harrington point but Blake Murphy (free) again cut the gap to the minimum.

A draw and unwanted extra time in the gathering gloom looked inevitable but Adrigole were not for bending and with corner forward David Harrington making two great turnovers in defence, it was Adrigole who kicked the insurance point in the 63rd minute when sub, Kevin Goggin, converted a free.

Scorers

Adrigole: D Harrington 0-2; C O’Sullivan, C O’Neill, C O’Neill, S O’Shea (1f), K Goggin (1f) 0-1 each.

St Vincent’s: B Murphy 0-3 (2f); W Long, G Kelleher 0-1 each.

Adrigole: W O’Sullivan, L Harrington, F Carey, D Harrington, Cathal O’Sullivan, S O’Shea, S O’Sullivan, N O’Sullivan, Charlie O’Sullivan, C O’Neill, Jason Harrington, Cian O’Shea, G O’Shea, Connie O’Shea, D Harrington.

Subs: B O’Sullivan for G O’Shea (26), T O’Sullivan for C O’Shea (55), K Goggin for J Harrington (57).

St Vincent’s: D Cleary, A O’Callaghan, G McCarthy, C Murphy, A Harte, D O’Regan, S Duggan, W Long, P O’Sullivan, L Calnan, B Murphy, S Price, B Hornibrook, A O’Callaghan, M O’Leary.

Subs: G Kelleher for L Calnan (ht), K Sorenson for S Duggan (47), C O’Neill for B Hornibrook (50), C Desmond for W Long (54).

Referee: L O’Shea (Carbery Rangers).