Newcestown back on track, but Ilen stuck in relegation battle

NEWCESTOWN 0-14

ILEN ROVERS 1-9

GER McCARTHY REPORTS

IT was far from pretty but Newcestown’s narrow West Cork derby victory over Ilen Rovers in the Bon Secours Senior A Football Championship was well earned. Horrible weather conditions played their part in reducing Newcestown and Ilen’s must-win Group C encounter into a battle at a rain-lashed Rossmore.

The last two clubs relegated from the Premier SFC each tasted defeat in their county championship openers. That heightened the importance of Saturday’s clash in which Newcestown dominated the first half and led by six points.

Conor Harrington’s goal injected life back into Rovers immediately after the restart. Dan Mac Eoin found his shooting boots and goalkeeper Damian O’Sullivan produced some excellent stops as Ilen moved within a point of their opponents close to full time.

Was there a shock on the cards? Unfortunately for Ilen, an inability to conjure up a leveller coupled with the stop-start nature of an, at times, overly-physical clash saw Newcestown notch the only injury-time point.

‘A wounded animal can be a dangerous thing,’ Ilen Rovers manager Colm O’Driscoll commented.

‘We threw the kitchen sink at them and just came up a fraction short. It ebbed and flowed and could have gone either way. I thought we could snatch it with a couple of minutes to go.’

‘I won’t say it was a great game, but it was a good battle,’ Newcestown manager Tim Buckley added. ‘Conditions were poor, very wet, but we looked comfortable up six points at half time. Ilen came back within a point of us. It was tit-for-tat until the 63rd minute when we eventually got over the line.’

Ilen Rovers' Donal Collins defending against Newcestown's Colm Dineen.

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Sean O’Donovan and David Buckley exchanged frees amid a frantic start. Newcestown settled and moved 0-4 to 0-1 ahead thanks to Richard O’Sullivan, Niall Kelly and another Buckley free.

Amid incessant and heavy showers, Rovers reduced the deficit to single point by the quarter-hour with Christopher White tipping a Michael Sheehy effort over the crossbar and Alan Holland adding Ilen’s third score.

Newcestown, adapting better to the conditions, quickly resumed control however, as Ilen’s defence was guilty of coughing up numerous frees. Niall Kelly converted two frees before David Buckley added another to make it 0-7 to 0-3.

Goal opportunities were few and far between but Richard O’Sullivan did break through only for Damian O’Sullivan to pull off an excellent stop.

Midfielder Colm Dineen made his mark with two long-range efforts from play before Niall Kelly (free) took Newcestown’s first-half total to ten points. Alan Holland replied to leave Ilen trailing 0-10 to 0-4 at the short whistle.

Newcestown's Richard O'Sullivan tries to block a shot from Ilen Rovers' Denis O'Driscoll.

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Just when the game appeared to be slipping away, Ilen Rovers conjured up a lifeline via Connor Harrington. The Rovers corner forward finished an Alan Holland delivery to the net two minutes after the restart and Ilen was back in business.

Encouraged by that goal, Dan Mac Eoin landed two magnificent efforts to push Ilen within two after David Buckley had fisted over.

Newcestown remained a threat on the counter-attack and Ilen needed two Damian O’Sullivan saves to stay in touch.

David Buckley (free) restored his team’s three-point lead late on but once again Ilen responded from Mac Eoin (free). Buckley and Alan Holland scored at either end during a frantic closing ten minutes before Dan Mac Eoin’s fourth point left the bare minimum between the sides.

Deep into injury-time and amid sometimes chaotic and overly-physical scenes, Ilen couldn’t break out from defence.

A hotly-contested decision to throw the ball up in front of Ilen’s goal saw Newcestown substitute Edmund Kenneally squeeze a shot over the bar for the game-clinching score. A hard-hitting but entertaining West Cork derby finished 0-14 to 1-9 in Newcestown’s favour shortly after.

Ilen head into another West Cork derby against Dohenys with renewed hope of avoiding a second relegation play-off in as many years. Newcestown have plenty of room for improvement but will fancy their chances against Bishopstown.

There are still plenty of West Cork headlines to be written in Group C.

Scorers 

Newcestown: D Buckley 0-6 (4f); N Kelly 0-4 (3f); C Dineen 0-2; R O’Sullivan, E Kenneally 0-1 each.

Ilen Rovers: D Mac Eoin 0-4 (1f); A Holland 0-3; C Harrington 1-0; S O’Donovan (f), M Sheehy 0-1 each.

Newcestown: C White; C O’Donovan, C Twomey, G O’Donovan; N Murray, M McSweeney, J Kelleher; C Dineen, L Meade; C Goggin, T Twomey, R O’Sullivan; N Kelly, D Buckley, S O’Donovan.

Subs: S O’Sullivan for C Goggin (48), E Kenneally for T Twomey (48).

Ilen Rovers: D O’Sullivan; S O’Shea, S Minihane, A Holland; C O’Driscoll, J Collins, D Collins; Peadar O’Driscoll, Peter O’Driscoll; D O’Driscoll, S O’Donovan, D Hegarty, D Mac Eoin, M Sheehy, C Harrington.

Sub: K O’Driscoll for C Harrington (56, inj).

Referee: Alan Long (Argideen Rangers).