Sherlock and Maguire on song as Barrs blitz Mallow
Ethan Twomey of St. Finbarr's after scoring a goal against Mallow in the Bon Secours Cork PSFC at Blarney.
St Finbarr’s opened their Bon Secours Cork Premier SFC campaign with a first-half blitz that helped them beat Mallow 4-15 to 0-9 in Blarney, with Ian Maguire netting two goals in the opening half hour.
This left the scoreboard reading 3-7 to 0-4 at the break, with their opponents getting only one point from open play during this spell.
It ended up as a routine win for a team that was returning to competitive action after their victory over Nemo Rangers in the final of the Cork Credit Unions Division 1 Football League. Apart from the blue jerseys, there was minimal continuation from that night in Páirc Uí Rinn as only eight players remained in the starting XV.
The Blues panel boasted the return of Steven Sherlock, Brian Hayes, and Maguire. Mallow started Matty Taylor and Shane Merritt, with the latter on the UCC panel that won the Sigerson Cup earlier this year.
Despite all of these names on the pitch, it was a slow opening as both teams struggled against the wind in Blarney. Once St Finbarr’s found their footing, something that started with Sherlock converting a free, they never looked like relinquishing their control over the game.
William Buckley set up the forward to get the Barr’s first goal and Mallow responded with Kieran O’Sullivan putting over a free. This was just swimming against the current, as the club from the city dominated all areas of the pitch.
Then Sherlock got his first point from open play and Hayes converted a mark, and that made it 1-3 to 0-1.
Mallow looked shellshocked and everything they sent forward went narrowly wide. It was quite the turnaround for a team that surprised the county last year by getting to the quarter-finals of the championship after getting promoted to this grade.
They didn’t hit their first score from open play until the 23rd minute, and Merritt split the posts with a driven shot inside the Barr’s 45.
The Blues reacted to this with two goals from Maguire. Ethan Twomey does have a claim to the first of that brace, as he followed in the midfielder’s fisted shot but he got to it as Mallow tried to clear the ball away on their own goal-line. The green flag was up at this stage and the two players celebrated with just minutes to go until the half-time whistle.
Sherlock came out from the break and sent out a free from the 45-metre line. The Barrs won the kick-out and set up Twomey to raise a green flag. The full-forward received the ball from Hayes and that made the score-line read 4-10 to 0-05.
Things wound down with the Barrs leading 4-13 to 0-9, with the only real point of note being a collection of Mallow wides.
Sherlock still continued to find space and create opportunities for himself. Even in the closing minutes, he was twisting free inside the Mallow 45 and putting the ball over the bar. This padded his tally, which already stood at 1-9 and six of those points came from frees.
The end result bodes well for St Finbarr’s, as they last played Mallow during their championship winning season in 2018.
As for Mallow, it’s all about reigniting the spirit of ’22 as they look to pick up results against Douglas and St Michael’s.
S Sherlock 1-10 (5f 1 45), I Maguire 2-1, E Twomey 1-0, J Barrett 0-2, W Buckley 0-1, B Hayes 0-1.
K O’Sullivan 0-3 (3f), K Sheehan 0-2 (2f), S Merritt 0-1, S Hayes 0-1, R Harkin 0-1, S O’Callaghan 0-1.
J Kerins; S Ryan, J Burns, C Scully, C Lyons, B Hennessy, A O’Connor, I Maguire, B Hayes, M Donovan, S Sherlock, J Barrett, W Buckley, E Twomey, E Dennehy.
E Kelleher for Copps (20), C Barrett for Twomey (45).
K Doyle; P Lyons, B Myers, E Crone, S Copps, J Glynn, M Fitzpatrick, E Stanton, D Moynihan, R Harkin, M Taylor, S Merritt, K Sheehan, K O’Sullivan, S Hayes.
S O’Callaghan for Merritt (HT), J Browne for K Sheehan (40), E Kelleher for Fitzpatrick (51), M Tobin for Hayes (51).
John Ryan
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