Cork Premier SFC: Clonakilty blow Ballincollig away to set up Newcestown quarter-final showdown

Clonakilty's Thomas Clancy in action against Newcestown back in 2015. Pic; Larry Cummins.

Clonakilty 3-22 (3-2-18) Ballincollig 0-8 (0-2-4)

Clonakilty proved far too strong for Ballincollig in their McCarthy Insurance Cork Premier SFC clash at Kilmurry on Sunday.

The West Cork side dominated from start to finish with their former Cork player, Thomas Clancy, controlling the game from centre-back.

He wasn’t the only one to put his hand up for a man of the match performance from the winners, who will now face Newcestown in the quarter-finals, with Sean McEvoy, Ross Mannix and Maurice Shanley others to impress.

Clon were in control from the start with Shanley opening the scoring in the third minute and they added a second a minute later through Mannix.

Their great start got even better in the sixth minute when they got their first goal.

Conor Daly played Mannix in and he gave Chris Walsh no chance of saving, to make it 1-2 to no score.

Des Kenneally added a point as Ballincollig were finding it hard to get out of their own half.

Their first real chance came after seven minutes when Dan Peet blocked to deny Sean Kiely, with Rob Noonan pointing the breaking ball.

Clon responded with three in a row, with Conor Daly, Mannix and Kenneally all pointing to make it 1-6 to 0-1 after 15 minutes.

A minute later the Village got their second point, when Darragh O’Mahony scored.

A second goal of the half for Clon kept them well ahead. Sean White took a quick free and played the ball to Chris Kenneally and his pass found Sean McEvoy to make it 2-6 to 0-2.

Dara Dorgan, just on as a sub, pointed from a free with his first touch for Ballincollig, but McEvoy scored again to see Clon lead by 2-7 to 0-3 at the break as they dominated the first half.

Clancy got the first score of the second half, and the first two pointer of the tie to stretch their lead further, with Chris Kenneally, McEvoy and Des Kenneally all adding scores to make it 2-12 to 0-3 after 37 minutes.

With 41 minutes gone the Village had another goal chance, this time Darragh O’Mahony being denied by a great block from Dan Peet.

Four minutes later and Dorgan got the game’s second two pointer as he led the Ballincollig charge.

McEvoy replied with two more points and by the time we got to the 50th minute it was 2-16 to 0-5 in Clon’s favour.

McEvoy added their third goal, before Dorgan replied with another two pointer and a point, to make it 3-16 to 0-8.

But Clon finished strongly with Sean White scoring three points, one a two pointer, and his Mark White scoring from a 45 to see them run out comfortable winners.

The loss sees Ballincollig facing St Michael’s in the relegation play-off in the coming weeks.

Scorers for Clonakilty: S McEvoy 2-4, R Mannix 1-2, D Kenneally, S White (1 2ptr), D Ó Se 0-3 each, T Clancy 0-2 (1 2 ptr), M Shanley, C Daly, C Kenneally, D Gough, M White (45) 0-1 each.

Scorers for Ballincollig: D Dorgan 0-6 (0-1 f, 2 2ptr), R Noonan, D O’Mahony 0-1 each.

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

Subs: D Gough for C Daly (47), E Deasy for J O’Mahony (51).

BALLINCOLLIG: C Walsh; JP Murphy, P Rose, C Ahern; L Fahy, L Jennings, D Desmond; S Kiely, B O’Connell; D O’Leary, D O’Mahony, C Dalton; R Noonan, D Miskella, C Dorgan.

Subs: D Dorgan for R Noonan (23), S O’Donoghue for D O’Leary (42), P Kelly for B O’Connell (47), C Power for P Rose (51), B Moore for C Dorgan (56).

Referee: Alan O’Connor (Ballygarvan).