Cork Championships underway as St Nick’s beat Glanworth in opener

Intermediate A football clash gets county action underway

Dave Dunlea of St Nicks, who got off to a winning start in the Cork IAFC. Picture: Larry Cummins

Cork IAFC

St Nick's 4-8 Glanworth 1-13

The Cork County Championship season is officially up and running after St Nick’s defeated Glanworth 4-8 to 1-13 in an entertaining opening game of the Bon Secours Intermediate A Football Championship in Glenville on Thursday night.

Despite an impressive performance from Glanworth’s Darragh O’Brien, which saw him claim 1-6 of his side's total it was St Nicks who made the dream start the campaign with the help of goals from their full forward line of Darragh Milner, Robert Brosnan,  and Ryan Long before substitute Lee Quilligan got in on the act late on.

Nick’s dominated the opening exchanges and they led 1-3 to 0-2 at the end of the first quarter thanks to Long’s well-taken goal, although it could have been more as they missed a couple of glorious chances to raise another green flag.

Darragh O’Brien would end the first half notching a remarkable tally of 1-4 with his goal coming shortly before the interval and it was a powerful low finish into the far bottom right corner.

But that would only keep his side in contention as a clever punch from Milner and another close-range finish from Robert Brosnan ensured Nick's started the second period with a six-point advantage, 3-5 to 1-5.

Glanworth were arguably the better team in the second half-hour and inspired by David Pyne and O’Brien, they put unanswered scoring runs together to eat into their rival's lead.

But it wasn’t to be enough as Quilligan’s late goal ensured Nick’s survived to start the championship with an important victory.

Scorers for St Nick's: R Long 1-1 (0-1 free), D Milner 1-1, R Brosnan and L Quilligan 1-0 each, D Brosnan 0-3, S O’Callaghan 0-2 (0-1free), F O’Driscoll 0-1.

Glanworth: D O’Brien 1-6 (0-2frees), D Pyne 0-3 (0-1 45, 0-1 free), G O’Neill, S Finn, S Condon, and S O’Riordan 0-1 each.

ST NICKS: E Fuller; D Dunlea, S O’Croinin, C Horgan; A Evan, K McCarthy Coade, S Horgan; D Coughlan, J Morrissey; S O’Callaghan, D Brosnan, L Forde; D Milner, R Brosnan, R Long.

Subs: L Quilligan for R Brosnan (ht), R Downey for D Milner (49), D Morris for D Coughlan (52), D Busteed for R Long (58), E Downey for S O’Callaghan (62).

GLANWORTH: C Cotter; J Blackburn, W Blackburn, T Condon; P Blackburn, G O’Neill, J Fitzgibbon; R Murphy, S Finn; D O’Brien, D Pyne, E Sheehan; S Condon, J O’Sullivan, S O’Riordan.

Subs: J Coughlan for E Sheehan (23), P Hannon for J Fitzgibbon (50).

Referee: Cathal McAllister (Aghada).