No slacking off as Bride roar into semi-finals with eyes on prize

Iniscarra open well but Group A winners find their feet to dominate contest and head towards playoffs in fine form

DEAD EYED: Bride Rovers Adam Walsh hit 0-9 for the victors. Pic: Eddie O'Hare

Co-Op Superstores Cork SAHC: Group A Bride Rovers 1-18 Inniscarra 1-12 

ALREADY winners of Group A before a ball was thrown, Bride Rovers were in no mood for slacking off at Riverstown on Saturday and with this six points third round win over Inniscarra, despite playing with 14 players from the 25th minute, booked a Cork SAHC semi-final berth and will now have eyes on the big prize.

Inniscarra did open well but were off the radar too many times early on. Pàdraig Holland and Owen McCarthy with frees did find the target but Bride were level 11 minutes into the contest, Ronan O’Connell and Conleth Ryan, with a super sideline, replying.

Slowly Bride grew into the contest and at the end of the first quarter led 0-4 to 0-3. Adam Walsh was now in top form for Bride converting his third point in a row and then in the 20th minute a super Bride goal, good work by Cillian Tobin and Ronan O’Connell setting up Josh Ahern who made no mistake.

The contest got a little heated now, first Bride’s Conleth Ryan got a yellow card from busy referee David Daly and then midfielder Jason Mannix got a straight red in the same altercation. But it did little to upset a slick Bride side who went on to lead 1-10 to 0-5 at the break with Adam Walsh keeping the scoreboard ticking over nicely.

With Josh Ahern now aiding the superb Brian Roche around midfield Bride were relentless on the restart, Walsh and Roche tacking on further points but then hope for Inniscarra when Holland blasted a close in free to the net in the 36th minute.

But with Patrick O’Flynn superb at full back, Roche ruling midfield and Ryan, O’Connell and Walsh doing Trojan work it was all Bride and by the end of the third quarter the Rathcormac men were impressive leaders 1-15 to 1-7 despite suffering another red card, this time for unused sub Cian O’Connor.

Inniscarra, now facing a relegation dogfight, did respond in the final quarter, Owen McCarthy, Holland with a 65 and David O’Keeffe firing over points but they were always facing a losing battle as battling Bride always had their measure.

Scorers for Bride Rovers: A. Walsh 0-9 (0-6 frees, 0-2 65s), J. Ahern 1-1, R. O’Connell and C. Ryan (0-1 sideline) 0-3 each, B. Roche 0-2.

Scorers for Inniscarra: P. Holland 1-7 (1-5 frees, 0-2 65s), O. McCarthy and D. O’Keeffe 0-2 each, O’Donoghue 0-1.

BRIDE ROVERS: C. Hogan; C. Hazelwood, P. O’Flynn, D. Cashman; K. Kearney, E. Roche, S. O’Connor; B. Roche, J. Mannix; C. Ryan, R. O’Connell, A. Walsh; C. Tobin, D. Dooley, J. Ahern.

Subs: W. Finnegan for Dooley (50m), L. Roche for Tobin (55m), D. Barry for Ahern (59m) 

INNISCARRA: J. O’Keefe; C. O’Leary, B. O’Mahony, C. Lombard; S. Sheehan, L. Ryan, P. Holland; J. Harrington, S. O’Donoghue; O. McCarthy, D. Keane, A. McCarthy; D. O’Keeffe, C. Casey, J. Roche.

Subs: C. O’Leary for Roche (47m), J. O’Sullivan for Lombard (57m), M. Murphy for O’Keeffe (60m).

Referee: David Daly (Brian Dillons).