Twomey and Sweetnam give Courcey Rovers the edge against Carrigaline

Seán Twomey powered through the Carrigaline rearguard before planting the sliotar past Mark O’Mahony

Cork PIHC 

Courcey Rovers 1-20 

Carrigaline 0-19 

A touch of class from Cork starlet Seán Twomey proved to be the difference between these rivals in this Co-op Superstores Cork PIHC Group A tie played in beautiful Ballinhassig on Saturday afternoon.

With five minutes to go, a heavily strapped Twomey had only clocked one point, but he’d been fouled for three points while also making two more, including one moments earlier for substitute John McCarthy after claiming a monstrous puck-out from Stephen Nyhan.

Crucially for Courceys, however, Twomey broke onto Nyhan’s next delivery, powered through the Carrigaline rearguard before planting the sliotar past Mark O’Mahony to give his side a 1-17 to 0-16 advantage.

Twomey was ably assisted by Richard Sweetnam, who amassed 0-12 across the hour and none were more crucial than the three he landed after the goal that cancelled out three from Carrigaline’s star man, Brian Kelleher.

This left Carrigaline needing a goal to rescue a point and David Griffin got the chance but Nyhan, who also contributed 0-3 from frees, was equal to the shot to ensure victory for the Courceys.

Carrigaline had looked the slightly sharper side in the opening half with Kelleher, Simon O’Brien and Patrick McBarron shooting them into an early three-point lead. A pair of frees each from Sweetnam and Nyhan brought Courceys into the game but two more points from Kelleher and a beauty from David Drake gave Carrigaline a 0-7 to 0-4 lead at the water break.

Courceys reeled them in on the re-start with points from Aidan O’Donovan, Jerry O’Neill, Sweetnam and Twomey bettering another Kelleher free to bring the sides level. The classy Kelleher then outscored his rival Sweetnam by three to two coming up to the break to give his side a slender 0-11 to 0-10 half time lead.

On the resumption, however, Courceys’ scores began to come a bit easier. Sweetnam clipped over three points, Nyhan had his third and substitute John McCarthy also pointed while Kelleher (2) McBarron and Drake were on target to leave them level at 0-15 apiece at the three-quarter stage.

McCarthy and Sweetnam pushed Courceys ahead before Chris Vaughan denied Sweetnam a certain goal with a brilliant hook after a long Nyhan delivery caused havoc. Another Kelleher free left the minimum between them before Twomey struck for his major to leave Courcey co-manager, Tim Lordan in a buoyant mood.

“These groups stages are fierce competitive as we saw last year, so it’s great to get off to a good start. We learned a lot from the league and that stood to us today. The lads (Twomey and Sweetnam) got great scores, but we pride ourselves on the workrate of our forwards and that’s what created the scores today.

“We’ve a quick turnaround now and we’ve a number of injuries, like everybody, so we’ll start our recovery now and drive on again for next week.” 

Scorers for Courcey Rovers: R Sweetnam (0-12, 7 fress, 1 ’65), S Twomey (1-1), S Nyhan (0-3, all frees), J McCarthy (0-2), A O’Donovan and J O’Neill (0-1 each).

Scorers for Carrigaline: B Kelleher (0-13, 10 frees), D Drake and P McBarron (0-2 each), R McCarthy and S O’Brien (0-1 each).

COURCEY ROVERS: S Nyhan; S McCarthy, B Mulcahy, K Collins; F Lordan, T O’Sullivan, B Collins; DJ Twomey, M Collins; O Crowley, A O’Donovan, J O’Neill; R Sweetnam, S Twomey, R Nuhan. 

Subs: J McCarthy for O’Donovan (inj, 37 min), L Collins for R Nyhan (60 min).

CARRIGALINE: M O’Mahony; C Vaughan, S Williamson, D Stack; K Kavanagh, R McCarthy, D Griffin, R O’Shea, K Dwane; B Kelleher, P McBarron, S O’Brien; D McCarthy, D Drake, R Kelleher. 

Subs: F O’Connell for Dwane (ht), K O’Reilly for O’Brien (44 min), D McBarron for D McCarthy (45 min).

Referee: Alan O’Connor (Ballygarvan).