Two goals in an exciting final ten minutes of play saw O'Donovan Rossa emerge victorious in this county junior B hurling championship round-one game.
O’Donovan Rossa 3-10
Belgooly 1-9
Donal O'Sullivan Reports
TWO goals in an exciting final ten minutes of play saw O’Donovan Rossa emerge victorious in this county junior B hurling championship round-one game that took its time to come to life as a contest.
Played in perfect conditions at a sun-drenched Clonakilty, the West Cork outfit – last season’s beaten county finalists – will be relieved to have progressed knowing Belgooly let them out of jail with some wayward shooting; an observation not lost on their manager Ian Breen.
‘We’re absolutely delighted with the win. It’s only our second game all season and the first was last week played in atrocious conditions,’ Breen said.
‘There’s potential there and this is a great competition to be involved in so hopefully we can build a bit of momentum after this victory.’
Belgooly drew first blood and led 1-1 to no score after five minutes, the goal coming from Joe O’Sullivan in the third minute. Two Rossa points sandwiched a Fitzgerald point before three unanswered scores from the losers left it 1-5 to 0-2 after 23 minutes. A point each from lively sub Michael O’Donovan and Stevie Cotter reduced the deficit which saw Belgooly lead 1-5 to 0-4 at the break.
A Belgooly free from impressive centre back Tom O’Donovan separated two Skibb points before the winners struck for a goal in the 38th minute. Good work from Shane Crowley Jnr saw him offload to Stevie Cotter and he made no mistake from close range to level the game at 1-6 apiece.
Belgooly reacted with two quick points but two pointed frees from Rossa goalkeeper Alan Foley levelled matters again with a quarter of the game remaining.
The game was in the melting pot and with passions rising, a pointed free from Gearoid O’Riordan put Belgooly back in front.
From there it was all O’Donovan Rossa. From the puck-out they struck the match-defining goal. They worked the sliotar into the Belgooly square and, following a goal-mouth scramble, it fell to Kevin Crowley to somehow find the back of the net.
A pointed Foley free stretched the lead to three, 2-9 to 1-9, before good work again by Stevie Cotter saw him break a high ball to Shane Crowley Snr. His first-time pull saw the sliotar rattle the loser’s netting to kill the game as a contest with five minutes remaining. It was left to Cotter again to have the final say with a point to complete the scoring in the last minute.
Scorers
O’Donovan Rossa: Stevie Cotter 1-2, Kevin Crowley 1-1, Shane Crowley Snr 1-0, Alan Foley 0-3 (3f), Michael O’Donovan 0-2, Alan Keane, Dan McCarthy 0-1 each.
Belgooly: Joe O’Sullivan 1-1, Kevin Fitzgerald, Gearoid O’Riordan (2f) and Tom O’Donovan (1f, 1 ’65) 0-2 each, Kieran Kiely and Ryan Long 0-1 each.
O’Donovan Rossa: Alan Foley; Niall McCarthy, Colm Crowley, Darren Lynch; Denis O’Regan, Dan Kingston, Jack O’Driscoll; Flor Crowley, Alan Keane; Pa Crowley, Shane Crowley, Stevie Cotter; Patrick Paison, Kevin Crowley, Dan McCarthy. Subs: Hugh Leonard for P Crowley (19), Michael O’Donovan for P Paison (25), Shane Crowley Snr for S Crowley Jnr (46), Dan Crowley for K Crowley (55), Ciarán French for D Lynch (57).
Belgooly: Ger Quinlan; Chris O’Sullivan, Liam Walsh, Shane McCarthy; Conor Horan, Tom O’Donovan, Diarmuid Walsh; Gearoid O’Riordan, Darragh Dwyer; Kieran Kiely, Sean Kiely, Ryan Long; Kevin Fitzgerald, Matthew Collins, Joe O’Sullivan. Subs: James Wall for M Collins (38), James Cronin for D Dwyer (45), Rhys Reynolds for G O’Riordan, Eoghan Dwyer for S. McCarthy (both 60).
Referee: Michael O’Mahony (Kilbrittain).
