Premier SFC: Seán Powter wins it at the death for Douglas against St Michael's
Douglas's Conor Russell wins the ball from St Michael's Seán Keating during the Bon Secours Hospital Cork Premier SFC game at Páirc Uí Rinn. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
Seán Powter was the Douglas hero as he kicked a 65th-minute winner to deny St Michael’s in the Bon Secours Hospital Cork Premier SFC city derby at Páirc Uí Rinn on Saturday.
St Michael’s, playing their first top-flight championship game since 2006, trailed by six points with 11 minutes left but looked to have secured a draw when captain Andrew Murphy scrambled home a goal in injury time.
The midfielder had got his head to the ball to send it past Eoghan O'Brien - the first header at Flower Lodge in three and a half decades. In 1988, Michael's had benefited as Nemo Rangers' Dinny Allen had a headed goal disallowed in an SFC game and on this occasion their luck was also in as, while the ball didn't touch the net, the green flag was belatedly waved.
Having led all through, Douglas might have wavered but kept their heads to get the win as Powter landed the important score. Semi-finalists in 2019 and 2021 but failing to emerge from their group in 2020 and 2022, Douglas will hope that the general pattern continues. With St Finbarr’s and Mallow to come in the group, they will know that improvement is needed but the key fact is that they have the points on the board.
Douglas began with a blitz. After scoring the first two points, in the sixth minute good defensive work by wing-forward Darragh Kelly led to a turnover, allowing Adam Cantwell and Powter – operating at wing-back – to set up Conor Russell for a goal.
After some early nervousness, Michael’s got off the mark with an impressive point from distance by Murphy, but Russell’s free on 11 minutes made it 1-4 to 0-1 and suggested that Douglas’s supremacy would not be shaken.
However, it would take 14 minutes for them to add to their tally as Michael’s belatedly began to get a foothold. Murphy and his midfield partner Eoin Hickey began to find more joy. The latter almost had a lucky goal on 13 – an intended delivery for the full-forward might have ended up in the net as goalkeeper Eoghan O’Brien backpedalled but the custodian was able to get a fist to the ball to send it out for a 45.
Hickey’s individual point did cut the deficit to five and Michael’s could have made more of the territory they were enjoying but Ciarán Kenny and Kevin Hayes Curtin in the Douglas defence were among those to make strong block-downs.
The chances continued to come for the Dazzlers, though, and Rory O’Shaughnessy and Tadgh Deasy (free) brought them to within three as the Douglas wides tally began to grow. The gap of a goal might even have been wiped out Emmet Sheehan tried to play in Daniel Meaney, but Powter read the situation well and Douglas broke quickly, with Brian Hartnett and Adam Cantwell linking for Conor Kingston to end their scoring drought.
Deasy, with another superb free, left it 1-5 to 0-5 as injury time dawned, but Douglas were awarded a penalty before the break.
Cork hurler Shane Kingston had entered the fray as a sub for the injured Eoghan Nash – his first football championship appearance since the 2019 semi-final loss to Nemo Rangers – and his inter-play with O’Hare and Cantwell led to Cantwell being fouled in the large rectangle. Conor Russell’s spot-kick was brilliantly saved by Martin Burke, though, and the sides went in with a goal between them.
Within a minute of the restart, Douglas threatened a green flag again as Russell threaded a beautiful pass to Cantwell, who was denied only by stout defending from Alan O’Callaghan, but the resistance could not remain indefinitely. With their next attack, Douglas had that second goal as Darragh Kelly and Conor Kingston cut through the Michael’s cover and centre-back Kevin Flahive applied the finish.
There might have been an immediate response in kind from Michael’s as Murphy’s ball goalward was met by the fist of Eric Hegarty but Eoghan O’Brien was able to push the ball on to the bar and away. At the other end, Russell was the architect for a soccer-style chance for Shane Kingston but Burke made another good stop.
After Adam Hennessy and Brian Hartnett exchanged points, the game looked to be creeping towards an eventless ending, but Michael’s were given hope thanks to Falvey’s goal after Mark O’Keeffe had hit the crossbar. The drama increased with Murphy’s late leveller, but Powter had the final say.
C Russell 1-3 (0-2f), K Flahive 1-0, S Powter, C Kingston, B Hartnett, A O’Hare, A Cantwell 0-1 each.
A Murphy 1-2, S Falvey 1-0, T Deasy 0-2f, A Hennessy, R O’Shaughnessy, E Hickey 0-1 each.
E O’Brien; N Lynch, C Kenny, K Hayes Curtin; S Powter, S Wilson, K Flahive; C Kingston, B Hartnett; Darragh Kelly (capt), E Nash, B Lynch; A O’Hare, A Cantwell, C Russell.
S Kingston for Nash (25, injured), S Aherne for B Lynch (48), D McCarthy for Cantwell (56), B Powter for Kelly (60, injured), J Cunningham for Russell (60).
M Burke; S Keating, J Golden, L Carroll; E Sheehan, D Meaney, A O’Callaghan; A Murphy (capt), E Hickey; T Deasy, S Falvey, K Hegarty; A Hennessy, R O’Shaughnessy, E Hegarty.
L O’Herlihy for O’Shaughnessy (half-time), L O’Sullivan for Hegarty (37), M O’Keeffe for Sheehan, R Kavanagh for Hickey (both 46), E O’Donovan for Falvey (53).
D Murnane (Macroom).
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