Double-chasing Kanturk snatch semi victory at the death

Aghada broken-hearted as Duhallow men strike with two late points in Premier IFC

Sat, 13 Nov, 2021 - 18:35

Diarmuid Sheehan

Cork Premier IFC: Kanturk 1-8 Aghada 1-7.

From the jaws of defeat in Mourneabbey on Saturday, Kanturk secured a last gasp win over Aghada to secure their place in Cork's PIFC decider.

The Duhallow men looked for all the world a beaten docket for long periods before bagging a brace of points in injury time to see off Aghada by the minimum after a fantastic 60-plus minutes of championship football.

After 12 of the same players secured the club a spot in the SAHC final a week previous fatigue was always likely to be a factor for a club batting at the business end of both codes but winners win and on this day Kanturk’s battle-hardened stars yet again defied the odds to win.

“I am so emotional right now” Kanturk manager Tim Healy said on the final whistle. “Coming back like we did today after doing it again last week – we asked our lads could they do it again and in fairness I can’t speak highly enough of these lads. We won this game down two men at the end. We gave them (Aghada) no sniff above and went on to win it at our end.

“I just know what it means to those guys. I know if they were beat today people that don’t know them would be saying things about them but honestly, as you saw here yourself, that is character forming stuff – they were fantastic.

“This is great for football at the club. It is also great for hurling. This win is fantastic for the club as winning gives itself an injection to keep on winning. I would say that coming from behind last week gave these lads the confidence to do it again today. We will now head back to training for the hurling final on Monday before concentrating on football after that game.”

From the first whistle Aghada looked up for this one as they pushed on at every opportunity, holding the majority of the ball in the opening exchanges.

Kyle O’Shea rampaged forward at every available opportunity from his post as corner back causing plenty of problems for a tired looking Kanturk defensive collective.

Aghada were first to trouble the scoreboard with a pointed free from Danny Creedon on five minutes which seemed to kick Kanturk into life.

Quick retorts from the men in green had Kanturk in front on seven minutes after some fine scores from Lorcan O’Neill and Ian Walsh but that would be the only time Kanturk would lead in normal time as Aghada moved their dominance on the field over to the scoreboard.

Kanturk looked to be in real trouble losing Ryan Walsh to a second yellow on 28 minutes and trailing by 0-7 to 0-3 heading to the dressing room.

Kanturk fought back to parity soon after the resumption with a goal from Clernon and a point from man of the match O’Neill but credit to Aghada they responded immediately with a brilliant individual goal from Aaron Berry.

Black cards O’Neill and Paul Walsh looked like sinking the Kanturk challenge late on but late scores from substitutes Kyrle Holland and Clernon sneaked this one for the Duhallow boys.

Scorers for Kanturk: C Clernon (1-1); I Walsh (0-3, 2 frees); L O’Neill, K Holland (0-2 each).

Scorers for Aghada: A Berry (1-1); D Creedon (0-2, frees), K O’Shea, K O’Hanlon, P O’Neill, C Fleming (0-1 each).

KANTURK: J Fullerton; J McLoughlin, S Browne, L Cashman; L O’Neill, A Walsh, L McLoughlin; P Walsh, J Browne; L O’Keeffe, R Walsh, A Walsh; I Walsh, C Walsh, M Healy.

Subs: B O’Sullivan for C Walsh, C Clernon for A Walsh (both half time); G Bucinskas for L O’Keeffe (41), Kryle Holland for I Walsh (55), E O’Connor for M Healy (56).

AGHADA: C O’Shea; K O’Shea, R Power, J McDonnell; J Tynan, M Russell, T Hartnett; P O’Neill, D Phelan; K O’Hanlon, D Creedon, A Berry; D Byrne, S Bennett, C Fleming.

Subs: D Collins for D Byrne (43), D Rice for P O’Neill (inj)(48), N Cunningham for D Creedon (55), J O’Hanlon for S Bennett (60).

Referee: J Regan (Lough Rovers)