Carrigaline’s stunning finish seals victory

Carrigaline 3-13 Valley Rovers 1-12: What a phenomenal finish by Carrigaline in the second round of the Cork Premier IHC at Ballinspittle last evening.

With just under five minutes remaining the sides were locked and extra-time looked a real possibility, but Carrigaline scored 2-4 in those hectic few minutes.

The only negative was a leg injury picked up by Cork senior Rob O’Shea 10 minutes from time.

With two minutes to go David Drake made the long journey downfield to hit a free from his own half-back line and his well-struck effort bounced in the square and went all the way to the net. In the same minute and from the next play, Tony Murphy fired past Willie Burke. Carrigaline then floated over four unanswered points.

“It doesn’t look too good for Rob but hopefully it is not as bad as it seems,” said Carrigaline manager John Middleton afterwards.

We brought on Peter Mullane. He is on a placement in Dublin and hasn’t a huge amount of training done. It was a gamble, fitness-wise, but by God he made a difference for the 10 minutes.

This was another south-east derby for Carrigaline following their first round defeat to Ballinhassig. They had to make one late adjustment to their side with regular goalkeeper Robert Foster unable to start due to concussion and he was replaced by Mark O’Mahony.

After free-takers O’Shea and Richie Butler had exchanged opening points, Carrigaline took a grip when Tony Murphy goaled from a 20-metre free in the 10th minute. The rest of the half was tentative with O’Shea and Butler raising the bulk of the flags from dead ball scenarios. However, the pick of the scores was a peach of a point from Simon O’Brien seven minutes from the break that gave his side an interval advantage of 1-5 to 0-6.

Valley Rovers hit the next two points after the interval, from Kevin Canty and Jack Walsh to draw level. The sides were still deadlocked at the end of the third quarter. Both sides were wasteful, however it was costly for the Rovers as they could never get ahead of Carrigaline. The score read 1-7 to 0-10 when O’Shea was forced off on 50 minutes.

Drake (2) swapped points with Butler and John Cottrell with 56 minutes on the clock. Then the comeback started. In the blink of an eye, Carrigaline had taken over, moving 10 points clear. A goal from Darragh Looney arrived for Valleys deep in stoppage time. But they were left reeling in those scintillating closing minutes.

Scorers for Carrigaline:

T Murphy (2-1, 1-0 free), R O’Shea (0-6, 5 frees), D Drake (1-3, 1-2 frees), S O’Brien, W O’Brien and P Mullane (0-1 each).

Scorers for Valley Rovers:

R Butler (0-7, 6 frees), D Looney (1-0), J Walsh (0-2), J Cottrell, G Farrell and K Canty (0-1 each).

CARRIGALINE:

M O’Mahony; D Griffin, P Murphy, C McGovern; C McSweeney, K Kavanagh, K O’Connell; M O’Sullivan, W O’Brien; R O’Shea, C Barry, S O’Brien; S Corcoran, T Murphy, D Drake.

Subs:

P Ronayne for C Barry (37), P Campbell for S Corcoran (38), P Mullane for R O’Shea (50 inj).

VALLEY ROVERS:

W Burke; N O’Donovan, D Lynch, F Coughlan; J Hurley, J Lynch, D Crowley; T O’Brien, D Looney; R Butler, J Cottrell, J Walsh; G Farrell, K Canty, C Desmond.

Subs:

F Lynch for C Desmond (25).

Referee:

Brian Murphy (Carrigtwohill).