Lynch lifts Rovers in dull encounter

MORE like a tame end of season league affair than a championship contest as Valley Roves booked an Evening Echo Cork Co IFC semi-final date with Ballingeary with victory over Cill Na Martra in a disappointing quarter-final on Kilmichael’s new pitch on Saturday.

Pulling and dragging, some very poor football for the most part and a mass brawl near the end all made for a sad afternoon’s football and Valley Rovers’ coach Michael Lyon is well aware it’s going to take a mighty improvement if they are to advance further. But he will be pleased with a stirring last quarter display which Cill Na Martra could not match

The eagle-eyed Hugh O’Donovan, who kicked six points, and corner-forward Eoin Manning, with 1-2, were Valley’s scorers-in-chief, but it was the superb play of Fiachra Lynch, operating at full-forward for the second-half, that won the contest for Rovers. Lynch was a thorn in the Cill Na Martra defence, scoring two points and setting up Manning’s 61st minute goal.