Bishopstown hold off strong comeback by Nemo

Bishopstown 1-14 Nemo Rangers 1-10

It all appeared to be going according to plan for Bishopstown when they led by seven points at the break. But after being reduced to 14 men with 10 minutes to go, they had to defend superbly before emerging deserved winners.

Contrary to expectations, play was again very scrappy with little or no fluency and, as a consequence, there was a complete lack of scores. Ten minutes lapsed before the opening score arrived, a James Murphy point, but after James Masters levelled it a minute later the Town began to take a firm grip.

County minor Shane O'Neill completely blotted out the threat of Alan Cronin, Brian Cuthbert, and Killian Coughlan gave them a grip at midfield, and with Donal O'Mahony and James Murphy sparkling in attack, the scores finally began to flow.

O'Mahony showed marvellous class with three excellent points, and it took a good save by Nemo keeper Stephen Corkery to deny James Murphy a goal as the Town constantly laid siege to the Nemo half.

It took Nemo 15 minutes to register their second point by James Masters, but Bishopstown's response was immediate. Shane O'Neill pointed a free from midfield before O'Mahony again showed his prowess with a brace of points and Niall Fehilly added another, which sent the Town to the dressing room at half-time 10 points to three in front.

The game improved greatly on the changeover as Nemo upped the tempo with points from John Coogan and Alan Cronin in the opening minute of the second half.

However, the Town's response was immediate when Aidan Corbett picked out Niall Fehilly and he shot low to the corner of the net.

In typical Nemo fashion, however, they came thundering back and helped by the sending-off of Martin Hayes, who had been hurling brilliantly at centre-back for Bishopstown, they knocked over three points in a row before the game was thrown wide open when James Masters rattled the Town net for a marvellous goal, which left three points between the sides at the end of the third quarter.

Bishopstown were clearly struggling to cope with the loss of Hayes, and Nemo, inspired by John Coogan and Alan Cronin, took full advantage.

As tension mounted, the Town defence came under enormous pressure and with two minutes to go, the Capwell side had the deficit down to the minimum.

It was backs to the wall defending by Bishopstown, whose cause wasn't helped by the loss of outstanding

corner-back Shane O'Neill through injury.

Credit where credit is due, however, and as the game ticked over the 60 minutes, the Town's greater hurling saw them hit over three points in a row to give them a victory that on the run of play was well-merited.

Scorers Bishopstown: D. O'Mahony (0-6, 0-2 frees), N. Fehilly (1-1), J. Murphy (0-3), R. Crowley, S. O'Neill (free), A. Corbett, C. Doyle (0-1 each).

Nemo Rangers: J. Masters (1-4, 0-3 frees), A. Cronin (0-3), S. Calnan (0-2), J. Coogan (free) (0-1).

BISHOPSTOWN: P. Murphy, S. O'Neill, M. Cogan, E. Deasy, B. Healy, M. Hayes, T. O'Donoghue, K. Coughlan, B. Cuthbert, N. Fehilly, C. Doyle, A. Corbett, R. Conway, D. O'Mahony, J. Murphy. Subs: E. McCarthy for O'Neill, P. Condon for Coughlan.

NEMO RANGERS: S. Corkery, G. Crowley, N. O'Donoghue, E. O'Leary, J. O'Riordan, J. Griffin, N. Geary, M. Cronin, J. Coogan, R. Murphy, A. Cronin, P. Morgan, J. Masters, S. Calnan, D. Creedon. Subs: T. Morgan for O'Donoghue, C. McCarthy for Crowley.

Referee: T. O'Neill (Shamrocks).