Cork Premier SFC: Carrigaline win leaves Clonakilty hopes hanging by a thread

Carrigaline, Cork Senior A football champions last year, have won both of their games in the top tier this season. 

Carrigaline's Niall Quirke on the ball against Clonakilty's Ross Mannix. Pic; Denis Boyle

Cork Premier SFC: Carrigaline 3-13 (3-1-11) Clonakilty 1-13 (1-0-13) 

The quality of fare wasn’t noteworthy, the result certainly was.

A second win from two outings for the Senior A champions of last year. A second defeat from two outings for the beaten Division 1 League finalists of earlier this summer and a team that brought Nemo Rangers all the way to penalties in last year’s county quarter-final.

Carrigaline are looking up, Clonakilty staring down at their boots.

Should St Finbarr’s, as expected, overcome Carbery Rangers in the second clash of Sunday’s Group 2 double-header at Bandon, then newly promoted Carrigaline will be assured of a Cork Premier Senior quarter-final berth with a round to spare. Clonakilty, meanwhile, will know their aspiration of once again reaching the knockout stages is, with a round to spare, beyond reach.

Having fallen five behind when Callum Barrett produced a superb second Carrigaline goal three minutes into the second half, Clon on four occasions whittled the difference back to the minimum. The almost erasure of that gap was primarily attributable to a Conor Daly green flag four minutes after Barrett’s.

But while Clon so often pulled up on the shoulder of Carrigaline, Clon could never find the equalising score. And when they were knocked clean out by a Carrigaline 1-3 in the space of two minutes just shy of the hour mark, they knew their own championship fate was now in the hands of neighbours Carbery Rangers and the requirement for a second upset in the second of the day’s double-header.

Carrigaline, who all afternoon were slicker in score creation and in ensuring there was constantly a spare man available inside the 40-metre arc to take aim when possession was swiftly recycled, reassumed control of the contest thanks to the first and decisive touch of sub Ryan Delaney. He fisted a Niall Coakley delivery to the net on 58 minutes.

Fellow sub Kevin O’Reilly, Éanna Desmond, and raiding half-back Jack McCarthy rose white flags in immediate succession.

A scoreboard reading 2-9 to 1-11 had been transformed. 3-12 to 1-11. That lead was stretched further when Niall Coakley converted an injury-time free for a Clonakilty breach of the three-up rule.

Carrigaline’s 1-6 to 0-6 interval advantage was fully merited. There’s an argument to be made that lead could have been more substantial. Carrigaline’s half-time wide count of seven was three greater than their opponents. Two of those Carrigaline misses were Brian O’Driscoll attempts for an orange flag after the Cork senior nailed his opening two-point attempt. There was also a Callum Barrett goal drive late in the half that Mark White comfortably kept out.

White will be disgusted with his role in Carrigaline's opening goal. Effective when coming out to midfield to stand opposite Carrigaline restarts, his own short restart in this instance was intercepted by Éanna Desmond. The corner-forward offloaded to Niall Coakley. The latter moved the ball into an unprotected goal.

Arriving as it did on 28 minutes and following a Desmond point, Carrigaline’s late-in-the-half scoring charge wiped out the momentum Clonakilty had generated through three successive points from Dara O’Shea, Conor Daly, and Ben Ridgeway between the 17th and 20th minutes to remodel a two-point deficit into a 0-6 to 0-5 lead.

That was to be the last time Clon led. Their championship involvement hangs by a strained thread. Carrigaline's championship involvement will run for longer than expected.

Scorers for Carrigaline: N Coakley (1-2, 0-1 free); B O’Driscoll (tp), É Desmond (0-3 each); C Barrett, R Delaney (1-0 each); B Coakley (0-2, 0-1 free); J McCarthy, C Kearney, K O’Reilly (0-1 each).

Scorers for Clonakilty: C Daly (1-3, 0-2 frees); D Gough (0-2 frees), D O’Shea (0-3 each); R Mannix (0-2); B Ridgeway, S White (0-1 each).

CARRIGALINE: C Dungan; D King, N Quirke, C O’Herlihy; K Kavanagh, B O’Driscoll, J McCarthy; P Mellet, N O’Keeffe; C Barrett, B Coakley, K McCarthy; E Desmond, N Coakley, C Kearney.

SUBS: K O’Reilly for O’Keeffe (42); S Andrews for Kearney (50); R Delaney for K McCarthy (57).

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

SUBS: L Griffin for Lowney (38); B White for McEvoy (41); C Ryan for Shanley (49, inj).

REFEREE: J Ryan.