Nemo slip and slide into semis but Clonakilty fume over conditions

WATER TORTURE: Clonakilty goalkeeper Mark White makes a fine save from Nemo Rangers' Luke Connolly in the Bon Secours Cork Premier SFC at Bandon.

Cork Premier SFC quarter-final: Nemo Rangers 0-5 Clonakilty 0-4

BETTER winning a bad game than losing a good one, sport's sages say. How about losing a bad one that shouldn't have been played at all? A season's training and preparation washed down river in a lottery of a Cork Premier SFC quarter-final, leaving one burning question.

Should Bandon have been abandoned?

Nemo Rangers won't mind that much. They're into another top-tier semi-final but their manager Paul O'Donovan wasn't oblibious to the frustration in the other dressing room. 

"You'd need a swimming certificate to get through some of that. I was surprised the game went ahead and at half-time, the referee, David Murnane was half-suggesting calling it off. At that stage, though, I was thinking we are halfway through it now, both teams were playing the game in the right spirit. But that's easy for me to say. Anyway, we had the tide in the second half!"

There wasn't much room for humour in the Clonakilty post-mortem, though their downfall was not exclusively down to the conditions. They went 40 minutes from the 20th to the 60th minutes, without a score, and their young attack made some poor decisions down the stretch.

Nevertheless, manager Eoin Ryan did have legitimate questions: "It's a joke, and that's not sour grapes - I said to the ref before the game that the game shouldn't be going on. Imagine bursting your ass since January and finishing up in conditions like that. Best of luck to Nemo, they were more experienced than us, but the whole thing is very disappointing. That pitch wasn't playable for football, and nobody could do themselves justice. 

"The question has to be asked again: Why aren't we playing these quarter-finals in Pairc Ui Chaoimh, where you can be guaranteed a good surface? We presumed from day one the game was going to be in the city."

Hail, rain, or sleet, Nemo Rangers' way is to find a way. The defending champions have shown time and again that they are masters at squeezing out the tight games, and though they didn’t hit the front until the 45th minute on Saturday, there was a sense of greater poise when they had the ball in the final quarter. Clon had a flurry of late offences to force extra time, including a late mark from Niall Barrett that fell short, and two blocked efforts from Darragh Gough – but those chances didn’t block themselves. 

There were fleeting moments of class. Mark Cronin grabbed three of the five Nemo points, the last one a fisted effort that provided decisive. Though Nemo had use – whatever use it was – of the gusting breeze after half time, they were content to sit deep and employ Luke Connolly and Cronin on the break. They lost Connolly late in the day, though the ankle problem was not serious enough to prevent him returning as an injury time substitute.

When the sides retired at the break with the west Cork men edging the odd point in five (0-3 to 0-2), there were genuine concerns whether the game would even resume. To his credit, referee Murnane applied common sense where possible but frustrated Clonakilty supporters must have feared their one-point interval lead was insufficient.

Nine minutes after the break, the best point of the evening as Mark Cronin used the better underfoot conditions on the pavilion side to turn inside and point well. It was never going to be a case of kicking on thereafter, the elements put paid to that, but Nemo edged in front for the first time via Paul Kerrigan on 44 minutes.

"We haven't had one of these in a while," smiled Paul O'Donovan, "not since the quarters against the Barrs in 2019 in Pairc Ui Rinn. if we can dig one of these out, it's a good day. We have proved we can come down here and battle. I read in the paper that Nemo don't like going west of the Viaduct. So we've knocked that on the head."

Scorers for Nemo Rangers: M Cronin (0-3, 1f), C Horgan, P Kerrigan (0-1 each).

Scorers for Clonakilty: L O’Donovan, C Daly (free), R Mannix (mark), D Gough (free) (0-1 each).

NEMO RANGERS: M A Martin; K Histon, B Murphy, K O’Donovan; G Sayers, K Fulignati, S Cronin; B Cripps, A O’Donovan; C Horgan, P Kerrigan, J Horgan; M Cronin, R Dalton, L Connolly.

Subs: L Horgan for Sayers (44), J Coogan for Connolly (inj, 49), for C Molloy for Dalton (55), F Murphy for Leahy (57).

CLONAKILTY: M White; L O’Donovan, D Peet, D Lowney; S White, T. Clancy, J O’Mahony; M Shanley, B Ridgeway; C Kenneally, D Gough, S McEvoy; R Mannix, C Daly, J Leahy.

Subs: N Barrett for Daly, O Bancroft for Kenneally (both 53), L Connolly for Fulignati (65).

Referee: D Murnane (Macroom)