Clonakilty stand firm as St. Nicks finish with a flourish

Clonakilty and St Nicholas have built up a tremendous rivalry and at Brinny on Saturday night they added to it in a hugely entertaining SFC second round tie that hung in the balance for most of the 62 minutes played.

Clonakilty came close to losing a game they looked lightly winners of from the moment Colin O’Donovan opened their account after 30 seconds and while they were never headed, they were put to the pin of their collar (1-15 to 1-12) to hold off the dogged challenge of St Nicks who will point to an amazing goal miss midway through the first-half which altered the course of the game.

That chance came in the 10th minute when a careless kick-out by Clon ’keeper Patrick O’Regan came to Barry O’Donovan but the ’keeper redeemed himself with an excellent save from the Nicks corner-forward who got a second bite of the cherry when the ball came back to him. However, he was penalised for picking the ball off the ground in front of goal and the chance was lost.

There can be no denying Clon deserved their victory.

They were razor sharp going forward and in Johnny Leahy had an excellent forward and his contribution of four first half points helped his side to a deserved 1-8 to 0-6 half-time lead.

Nicks showed commendable resilience on the changeover, with the outstanding Graham Callanan at the focal point of every attacking move. They rocked their opponents, scoring 1-2 without reply, the goal coming from Aaron O’Brien after Robert Brosnan set him up with a delightful through pass.

Nicks were rampant and it took some great defending by Clon’s Tony Anglin and Donal Lyons to prevent their side from falling behind.

Ballincollig are back in the hunt for the Premier IHC after at 0-12 to 0-7 win over Watergrasshill in Riverstown on Saturday evening.

Ballincollig were a more balanced outfit – particularly in attack– although they will need to improve in their shooting as they had the same number of wides as they had scores.

For now though, they are safely through to the fourth round while Watergrasshill, who had previously lost out to Youghal, are minus a few of their better known names this year were unable to start Paudie Cahill due to injury.

They advance to round three but their football arm, Glenville, also have to prepare for a back door game in Premier IFC next weekend.