Bride Rovers dug in after injury to veteran defender Jason Pratt

BRIDE ROVERS did it for Jason Pratt in their gutsy 1-9 to 0-11 win over Ballymartle in the Co-Op Superstores Senior A Hurling championship at Riverstown at the weekend.

His colleagues had to watch the worrying sight of their dependable full-back being whisked away by ambulance after suffering an injury during a goal-mouth scramble early in the second half.

“We had 25 minutes to get the win and the lads did it for Jason,” said relieved manager Liam Barry.

Ballymartle, who were playing a man down at the time, led by 0-8 to 0-7, only for Brian Roche’s 48th-minute goal to deny them.

“Jason was taken to hospital as a precaution and seemed to be in good spirits.

“The safest thing to do was get him medical attention and obviously our thoughts are with him and hope he’ll be fine.

“Everyone came together and we’re very grateful for our own medical team, the assistance from Ballymartle and from Sars as well.

“It was hard to refocus as some of the lads were upset because Jason is an important part of the team.

“But once we got word that he was good and in safe hands, we turned our attentions to the rest of the match.” 

And what a match it proved to be, a throw-back to the old days of a manly championship encounter which lacked precious little.

This was real championship fare with two teams going at it hammer and tongs in a game that had everything.

“There were some good scores, a vital goal, lots of wides, but a real physical challenge out there from two teams who gave it everything.

“We’re obviously glad to have come out the right side of the result.

“It showed a week is a lot in hurling because we had 15 wides after scoring 1-25 the previous week and only got 1-9 on this occasion.

“It’s clearly something we have to work on and if we had lost it would have been our own fault, nobody else.” 

The Rathcormac club are now on four points, qualified for the knock-out phase with designs on a semi-final place.

“We’ve had two different games and this was a real test which will definitely stand to the lads, particularly the younger fellows.

“We would like to top the group and maybe qualify for the semi-finals. Mallow are next up in three weeks and we’ll turn our attention to that.”

Roche’s goal was huge in the overall context. “In the last 10-15 minutes he came alive after we moved him back into the full-forward line, where he is more at home in front of the goals.”