Declan Dalton and Billy Dunne drive Fr O'Neills directly to senior 'A' semi-finals

Fr O'Neills goalscorer Billy Dunne celebrates his goal.  Picture: Larry Cummins.

Cork SAHC: Fr O’Neill’s 6-19  Ballymartle 2-11 

A magnificent third quarter from Fr O’Neill’s laid the foundation for a comfortable win over Ballymartle in the Co-Op Superstores Cork Senior A hurling championship at Cobh on Saturday.

Ballymartle finished the game with 13 men following the dismissal of Darren McCarthy in the 20th minute and goalkeeper Declan McCarthy was dismissed three minutes from full time.

The game started in a welter of excitement with Fr O’Neill’s opening up with consecutive points from Declan Dalton and Billy Dunne. Suddenly, Ballymartle responded to the wake- up call and a Darren McCarthy point in the sixth minute injected energy into the side.

A minute later poor defending allowed Brian Corry plenty of space as he blasted the ball to the back of the net for a Ballymartle goal.

On the next possession, Fr O’Neill’s responded in style when Rob Cullinane set up Declan Dalton and their talisman showed no mercy with a thunderous shot past the keeper.

Incredibly Ballymartle hit back with a goal: Corry showed a nice touch to drill an unstoppable shot beyond Colin Sloane.

When O’Neill’s needed inspiration, Billy Dunne scored the first of his three goals in the 18th minute but despite playing with 14 men a late Corry point ensured the teams were level at the break.

On the resumption, Fr O’Neills ran riot scoring three goals in the opening 13 minutes with Dunne, Liam O’Driscoll and Dalton on target. Indeed, in that phase, Fr O’Neill’s outscored their opponents 3-6 to 0-3.

The Dalton and Dunne combination worked wonders as the latter secured his hat- trick with a sublime strike in the closing minutes it put the icing on the cake for the O’Neill’s hard-working forward.

By virtue of this win, Fr O’Neill’s booked their semi-final berth and if they can produce similar performances in the coming weeks, they could be very well serious championship contenders.

Scorers for Fr O’Neill’s: D Dalton 2-8 (0-3f, 0-2 sl) B Dunne 3-4, L O’Driscoll 1-2, K O’Sullivan 0-2, J Hankard, D Conway, P McMahon (0-1 each).

Scorers for Ballymartle: D McCarthy 0-7 (0-4f), B Corry 2-2, S O’Mahony 0-2.

FR O'NEILLS: C Sloane; M Millerick, P Butler, E Motherway; J Barry, M O’Keeffe, T Millerick; J Millerick, K O’Sullivan; R Cullinane, P McMahon, J Hankard; L O’Driscoll, D Dalton, B Dunne.

Subs: S O’Connor for P Butler (h-t), John Millerick for Joe Millerick (47), O Conway for J Hankard (53).

BALLYMARTLE: D McCarthy; C Coleman, E Healy, L Corry; G Webb, E O’Leary, S Corry; D McCarthy, C Allen; S O’Mahony, B Corry, P Geary; D McCarthy, K McCarthy, J McCarthy.

Subs: D Edmonds for C Coleman (25), S Cummins for P Geary (25).

Referee: Teddy O’Donovan (Douglas).