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.