Bishopstown pass endurance test and face O’Donovan Rossa repeat

Bishopstown 1-9 Clyda Rovers 0-8: This fourth-round Cork SFC game at Páirc Uí Rinn Saturday proved an endurance test for both teams. Similarly for neutrals, with the worst excesses of the modern game in terms of ‘blanket’ covering, body-checking an obsession with hand-passing and, additionally, an undercurrent of bad feeling which saw two of seven players yellow-carded eventually shown a red card, another black-carded and several more escape censure.

And for Bishopstown, more industrious in attack, victory came with a small sting in the tail in the context of a repeat meeting with O’Donovan Rossa next Saturday. Selector Leo Jones described this as ‘a bit unfair,’ commenting: “Skibbereen have had three weeks since their last game. I don’t see any rush why our game has to be played next weekend. It’s a quarter-final and there are other fourth-round games next week-end.

“We had a great battle with them, 2-14 to 2-11 in the first round — a different type of game from tonight. But that won’t mean anything.