Bride Rovers 2-23

Inniscarra 1-18

NOEL HORGAN REPORTS

THE picture looked bright for Inniscarra midway through the second half of the Co-op Superstores Senior A Hurling Championship quarter-final clash with Bride Rovers at Páirc Uí Rinn ón Saturday.

Trailing by 1-13 to 0-7 at the interval, they had reduced the deficit to two points at that juncture. With a strong wind to their backs, they had good cause to fancy their chances of overhauling the Imokilly side in the last quarter.

The complexion of the contest changed dramatically approaching the last ten minutes, however, as Bride Rovers, boosted by a goal from Cork senior Brian Roche, regained the initiative.

Considering they looked favourably positioned at the three-quarter stage, defeat was particularly disappointing for the Muskerry side, although manager Pádraig Hughes was keen to dwell on the positives in the wake of what he described as a very encouraging campaign.

‘While this is a hard defeat to take, it’s been a phenomenal year for us, and we’ve learned a lot from it. We’ve hit most of our targets, the lads have shown they can be competitive at this level, which is a great stepping stone going forward,’ said Hughes.

‘There’s a lot of young players on this team, and things didn’t go so well for us in the first half, but they showed great character to get back into the game after half time.’

Inniscarra struggled in the first half, particularly during the opening 20 minutes when precious little passed a dominant Bride Rovers half-back line.

After Joe Enright opened the scoring from a free, the losers didn’t add to their tally until Pádraig Holland pointed to make it 0-8 to 0-2 in the 17th minute.

Significantly, full-forward Holland, starved of a decent service inside, was forced to drift outfield to win possession and find the target from distance – he was one of the few players to perform creditably for Inniscarra before the break.

Wing-back Sean Sheehan was another, while Joe Enright, Niall Buckley and Daniel Murphy chipped in with some good scores from play as Inniscarra finally began to make headway up front nearing half-time.

It meant that, after an Adam Walsh goal left Bride Rovers leading by 1-11 to 0-3 with 21 minutes gone, Inniscarra managed to stop the rot before the interval.

They got off to an ideal start on the resumption, courtesy of a well-taken goal from midfielder Frank Horgan, which prompted a major improvement in all sectors.

An inspirational point from Joe Enright cut the gap to two points, 1-14 to 1-12, in the 41st minute. Aided by scores from free-taker Enright and substitute Cameron Lynch, they were still two adrift before the game’s defining period arrived.

Sandwiched by a brace of converted frees by Adam Walsh, the goal from Brian Roche got Bride Rovers back on course where they remained until the finish after Inniscarra’s problems were compounded by the dismissal of substitute Shane O’Mahony in the 51st minute.

Scorers

Bride Rovers: A Lynch 1-9 (8f); B Roche 1-2; D Barry 0-3; C Ryan, R O’Connell, K Kearney 0-2 each; C Hogan (f), L Roche, C Barry 0-1 each.

Inniscarra: J Enright 0-7 (5f); P Holland 0-6 (3f); F Horgan 1-0; N Buckley, D O’Brien, C Lynch, S O’Donoghue 0-1 each.

Bride Rovers: C Hogan; J Peters, E Roche, D Cashman; C Hazelwood, C Tobin, S O’Connor; C O’Sullivan, K Kearney; P O’Flynn, B Roche, R O’Connell; A Walsh, D Barry, D Ryan.

Subs: J Mannix for Kearney (54), L Roche for O’Connell (54), C Barry for O’Flynn (56), J Aherne for D Barry (59).

Inniscarra: E O’Neill; D Keane, L Ryan, C O’Leary; B Daly, S O’Donoghue, S Sheehan; C Dineen, F Horgan; J Enright, A McCarthy, N Buckley; D Murphy, P Holland, D O’Brien.

Subs: S O’Mahony for Keane (ht), C Lynch for McCarthy (35), J O’Sullivan for Enright (52), M Nagle for O’Brien (52), S Murphy for Murphy (55).

Referee: C O’Regan (Ballyhea).