Valley Rovers in high spirits ahead of opening game in the Premier SFC

VALLEY ROVERS head into the Bon Secours Hospital Premier SFC on the back of relegation from the Cork Credit Unions Division 1 football league, but despite that, there is an air of confidence around the team heading into Saturday’s opening group-stage game against Clonakilty in Bandon at 7.30pm.

While the team in green and white finished below the dreaded dotted line, they did end the league campaign with a home win over Kiskeam, inspired by the experienced Fiachra Lynch.

William Hurley, who at 25 years of age, is a key player in the Valley Rovers defence, and he is very much looking forward to the new championship season despite a difficult league campaign.

“We have had a nice run into the championship. The league season finished four weeks ago so we have put in a good few weeks of hard training. We feel we are ready for the Clonakilty game on Saturday. The league was disappointing, especially after the positive start we had. We got a draw against St Finbarr’s away in the first game and we won well at Ballincollig in the third game, but we certainly weren’t getting carried away. In fairness, we had a lot of lads missing at various stages of the league campaign.” 

There was one particular result that stood out in the Division 1 football league. Carbery Rangers were in the relegation zone before the visit of mid-table Valley Rovers back in early May. It was a day where everything that could have possibly gone wrong, went wrong for the Innishannon side as Carbery Rangers won 3-11 to 0-8. 

Despite that heavy defeat, Hurley says there were a number of reasons why Valley’s struggled towards the end of the season and that the Ross defeat didn’t have any impact on the confidence.

“With the new structure, it’s very important to peak at the right time. The management are mindful of us and in fairness the workload during the league was managed very well. We were also missing many players as I have mentioned already which didn’t help and then we had injuries. Many people have brought up that Carbery Rangers result. 

"Less said about that game the better, it just wasn’t a good day. We went out to get the win but unfortunately Carbery Rangers were just much more clinical than us on that day. We did create chances but we were unable to take them. I don’t think that result had any impact on us in the remaining couple of league games.” 

With Castlehaven and Carbery Rangers also in the group, there will be an added significance for both Valley Rovers and Clonakilty to get off to a strong start when they meet each other on Saturday.

“It’s a very important game on Saturday,” Hurley says. “Since the draws were made last December, Clonakilty have been the focus.”