After beating Nemo, Bandon footballers prepare for a derby duel with Bantry

AFTER Bandon’s 1-16 to 1-14 win over Nemo Rangers in Round 3 in the Cork PIFC in Ballygarvan, their coach David O’Donovan was pleased with his side, especially as they had a long lay-off since their opening round win.

“We haven’t played since April 6, and any relevance since that good win against Newmarket is gone out the window a long time.

“The lads were very disappointed with the defeat by Carrigtwohill in the senior hurling championship. We have 12 lads who start in both codes, so one has a knock-on effect on the other.”

“It took us a while to get over that. We went to Kerry to play Templenoe last Sunday, and we played Douglas as well, and it was only then that the effects of the Carrigtwohill game were wearing off. This time five years ago, Bandon were getting ready for the junior semi-final in Carbery, so it’s a big step-up to be trying to be playing three grades higher in the space of a couple of years.”

It was quite a step up, even against Nemo’s second team.

“Nemo are Nemo and we knew the size of the task coming down here, and it was about getting over the line by hook or by crook.

So, how did Bandon manage the long lay-off that has affected a lot of teams?

“Teams are preparing as well as they can, and they think they are ready, but as you can see, there are lots of shocks in the championship, and teams are being knocked out. It’s all about winning the first game back and building momentum.

“We were very flat in periods in the first half, and they had two great goal chances to capitalise on the goal they got earlier, but Pat Prendergast made two fantastic saves that kept us in it, and we had something to go for in the second half, instead of being nine or 10 points behind.”

They now have three weeks now before they play Bantry in West Cork.

“We’re looking forward to that. We have three or four more players to come back so it’s all systems go, we have total concentration on football for the next few weeks”

Nemo were three points ahead, when Barry Collins, who scored a magnificent 1-6 from play for Bandon, hit a goal for the west Cork side in the 36th minute.

“Barry’s goal was crucial, and we seemed to get a lot of momentum from that.

“We got four or five great points on the trot, but then we kind of fell into a lull of thinking we had the game won with 10 minutes to go, when we went five points ahead, but Nemo were never going to go away, and we were maybe kind of hanging on a small bit at the finish.”