St Nick’s 2-14

Kinsale 1-13

JJ HURLEY REPORTS

KINSALE’S inability to hold a dominant position over St Nick’s right up to the half-time whistle proved costly in the McCarthy Insurance Group premier junior football quarter-final at Shanbally last Saturday.

Four minutes before the interval, Kinsale held a commanding 1-8 to 0-3 lead, before a point on 27 minutes and a goal on 29 minutes from Cork hurler, Robert Downey, threw a lifeline to the city side.

Early in the second half, two Kinsale points looked to have weathered the storm, only for Nick’s to outscore the seasiders by eight scores to one, including a soft goal on 52 minutes.

Speaking after the contest, Kinsale manager Kevin Cahill had no excuses as he paid tribute to the opposition.

‘We thought the boys put in a fantastic effort. We felt Nick’s played very well. Not that I’m going to call it lucky or anything, but they got two goals at probably the best times they could have got them,’ Cahill said.

‘Look, fair play to them. They’re a great team.’

Nick’s opened with two Jack O’Sullivan frees. Kinsale’s response came from Gearóid Finn
after six minutes. It was advantage Kinsale on ten minutes as Michael Murphy was brought
down in the square, and Finn made no mistake, as Eoghan Varian saw black for the incident.

Kinsale added three scores. A two-point free from Brian Coughlan in addition to a single Conor McCarthy point as the seasiders led 1-5 to 0-3 on 17 minutes.

Kinsale seemed to benefit from stoppages in the game as they hit three unanswered points, including two from Murphy. A breach by Kinsale allowed O’Sullivan to score his third point from a free.

Another O’Sullivan free proved crucial as he found Rob Downey, who crashed the ball to the Kinsale net to leave the score at the break 1-8 to 1-4.

Early in the second half, Kinsale hit two points, but the city team took control to the tune of
1-5 to 0-1. The all-important score in that sequence was a speculative shot from Danny
Morris, deceiving the Kinsale defence and ending in the back of the net.

Down by six, Kinsale battled gamely but could only trim the gap by two as Nick’s return to
the semi-final.

‘We look forward to getting ourselves back on track for our hurling semi final with Belgooly on Saturday now,’ Cahill remarked, despite the defeat.

Scorers

St Nick’s: R Downey 1-1, Jack O’Sullivan (3f, 1 45), C McCarthy (1 2pt) 0-4
each, D Morris 1-0, E Downey (2pt), D Brosnan (2pt) 0-2 each, Z Lynch 0-1.

Kinsale: G Finn 1-1 (1-0 pen), M Murphy 0-4 (1f), B Coughlan 0-3 (1 2ptf), J Murphy, G Kearney 0-2 each, Rory O’Brien 0-1.

St Nick’s: R Cronin; D Dunlea, O O’Connell, C Horgan; F O’Driscoll, E Varian, Z Lynch;
R Downey, E Downey; R Dunne, J Morrissey, L Quilligan; J O’Sullivan, K Kelleher, C McCarthy.

Subs: D Morris for K Kelleher (34), S Horgan for J Morrissey (38), D Brosnan for R Dunne (40), S Kennefick for L Quilligan (45), B Heffernan for C McCarthy (58).

Kinsale: S O’Neill; D O’Leary, K O’Callaghan, C Fitzpatrick; B O’Neill, N McCarthy, J
Byrne; J Murphy, Gearoid Kearney; J O’Brien, G Finn, C Fitzpatrick; Noah Ryan, B Coughlan, M Murphy.

Subs: D Looney for B Coughlan, L Kirwin for J Byrne (46), R O’Brien for J O’Brien, B Coughlan for M Murphy (58 inj).

Referee: Alan Hourihan (Aghinagh).