Colm’s clincher sees Fachtna’s home

St. Fachtna’s 2-8 Limerick Colleges 0-11

They secured victory over Limerick Colleges in a delightful quarter-final at Liscarroll.

The venue was not up to scratch for a game of such importance. The grass was long, not lined and a Limerick official had to go around and put down the flags before the throw-in.

But both teams served up some terrific football and kept the small following on their toes.

It took a goal by Skibbereen centre-forward, Colm O’Driscoll, 26 minutes into the second half to rule out another upset by Limerick Colleges who knocked the champions, Spioraid Naomh, out in their last game.

Skibbereen were in front after nine minutes when Colm O’Driscoll put Sean Cahalane away and the full-forward placed it beyond Ciaran Carbery in the Limerick goal before an Aaron O’Regan point put them further ahead.

A long range point from Limerick’s Jason Murphy was followed by another from Eoin O’Brien to cut the margin to two.

The points were plentiful at this stage and Kevin O’Driscoll and Colm O’Driscoll pointed for Fachtna’s with Sean Scanlon, Eoin O’Brien, Joe O’Connor and Scanlon again replying to leave the sides level at half-time 1-4 to 0-7.

On the re-start Ciaran Carberry in the Limerick goal had to make a great stop, deflecting the ball over the bar from Sean Cahalane’s effort.

Colm O’Driscoll added a point for the Cork side before Scanlon scored three points to put Limerick in the lead for the first time.

Colm O’Driscoll and his namesake Kevin then scored to put Skibb back in front before Colm grabbed a poor clearance from Ciaran Carbery to fire home four minutes from time to settle the tie.

“We knew we would have to dig deep,” St. Fachtna’s coach, Coleman O’Driscoll said afterwards before expressing disappointment at the pitch. “I am totally disgusted,” he said. “We had a two and a half hour drive from West Cork and then, when we arrived, the pitch was not even lined or flagged. We understand the difficulty getting pitches at this time of year and we are grateful to Liscarroll for the use of their grounds but really we would have expected a decent pitch.”

Scorers: St. Fachtna’s: Colm O’Driscoll 1-3 (0-1 free), S. Cahalane 1-1, Conor O’Driscoll, K. O’Driscoll, A. O’Regan 0-1, S. Hurley (free) 0-1 each. Limerick Colleges: S. Scanlon 0-6 (frees), E. O’Brien 0-2, D. Cusack, J. O’Connor, J. Murphy 0-1 each.

ST. FACHTNA’S: E. Daly; D. Harrington, Shane O’Brien, D. McCarthy; S. Kiely, M. Cahalane, Stephen O’Brien; Conor O’Driscoll, S. O’Driscoll; A. O’Regan, Colm O’Driscoll, S. Hurley; K. O’Driscoll, S. Cahalane, C. Crowley.

Sub: L. Sheehan for Shane O’Brien.

LIMERICK COLLEGES: C. Carbery (St. Clement’s); K. Nolan (Ard Scoil Ris), D. Kavanagh (St. Munchin’s), K. Hartnett (St. Munchin’s); J. O’Neill (St. Munchin’s), J. Carroll (Ard Scoil Ris), M. McCormack (Ard Scoil Ris); P. Corrigan (Ard Scoil Ris), D. Cusack (St. Nessan’s); P. Kerrigan (Ard Scoil Ris), E. Hogan (Ard Scoil Ris), S. Scanlon (Crescent); J. O’Connor (St. Munchin’s), J. Murphy (St. Clement’s), E. O’Brien (St. Clement’s).

Subs: S. Considine for J. O’Neill, P. Behan for P. Kerrigan, B. Shannon for E. Hogan.

Referee: Ger Lynch (Ballymacelligot).