Glen Rovers ease into Cork SHC final with win over Carrigtwohill

[team1]Glen Rovers[/team1][score1]0-26[/score1][team2]Carrigtwohill[/team2][score2]0-11[/score2][/score]

Glen Rovers eased into their fourth Cork SHC final in six years courtesy of this facile victory over an outclassed Carrigtwohill side.

After two years away from the showpiece event, the Glen, who were champions in 2015 and ‘16, had it all their own way in this desperately one-sided semi-final.

This result had long been put to bed come half-time, the Glen ahead by 0-16 to 0-4.

Such was the Glen’s early dominance, it was game over as early as the 10th minute, the favourites surging into a 10-point lead.

Conor Dorris set the tone with three points inside the opening three minutes and there followed a Liam Coughlan effort and a brace from experienced midfielder Donal Cronin to move Richie Kelleher’s side six clear eight minutes in.

Carrigtwohill, who were appearing in their first semi-final in eight years, were way off the pace early doors, but also looked so unsure of themselves when on the ball.

What will have frustrated players and management most was the number of unforced errors made as umpteen passes went astray, possession was miscontrolled, while, on one occasion, a blue shirt simply ran out over the sliotar even though he was under little or no pressure.

Patrick Horgan made his first impression on the scoresheet after eight minutes and two more shortly after, along with Dean Brosnan’s opener, left the scoreboard reading 0-10 to 0-0 10 and a half minutes in.

Carrigtwohill opted to deploy a seventh defender in an attempt to stop the bleeding but the problem was that they kept sending their clearances out of defence to the spare Glen man at the other end of the field.

Another poor mistake led to the Glen’s 11th white flag, struck by Simon Kennefick, as Carrigtwohill’s Padraic Hogan dropped a Stephen McDonnell delivery despite there being no one near him.

The Glen added a 12th unanswered point before Liam Gosnell, from a ‘65, had Carrigtwohill on the board after 18 long, long minutes.

He was responsible for all four of their first-half points, all of which came from the placed-ball.

Their failure to hit a single score from play in the opening 30 minutes summed up their woes.

The underdogs hit the first two points of the second-half, including their first from play from Jay Horgan on 33 minutes, to narrow the gap to 10 but that is as close as they would come for the remainder of the half.

Glen countered with two separate three-point bursts, but noticeable was the lack of goal chances they created.

Whether it is the Barr’s or Imokilly they face in a fortnight, they’ll need to be engineering more green-flag opportunities.

That’s a minor complaint, mind you, on an afternoon where they limited their opponents to just two scores from play.

Scorers for Glen Rovers: P Horgan (0-8, 0-3 frees); D Cronin, C Dorris (0-4 each); S Kennefick (0-3); L Coughlan, D Brosnan (0-2 each); R Downey, B Moylan, A O’Donovan (0-1 each).

Scorers for Carrigtwohill: L Gosnell (0-10, 0-8 frees, 0-1 ‘65); J Horgan (0-1).

Glen Rovers: C Hickey; S McDonnell, D Dooling, C Healy; R Downey, B Moylan, D Noonan; D Cronin, A O’Donovan; D Cunningham, C Dorris, D Brosnan; S Kennefick, P Horgan, L Coughlan.

Subs: A Lynch for McDonnell (25 mins, inj); D Busteed for Cunningham (48); D Tynan for Cronin (50); D Morris for Downey (54); G Kennefick for Dorris (57)

Carrigtwohill: S Devlin; P O’Sullivan, R Power, P Bearden; C O’Connell, P Hogan, A Walsh-Barry; J Horgan, T Hogan; J McCarthy, S Roche, L O’Sullivan; B Twomey, S Rohan, L Gosnell.

Subs: J Mulcahy for Hogan (HT): E O’Mahony for Roche, J Carroll for McCarthy (both 50).

Referee: C McAllister.