Bride Rovers seal semi spot by beating Inniscarra but lose key player to straight red

Bride Rovers 1-18 Inniscarra 1-12

Bride Rovers are through to the semi-final of the Co-op Superstores SAHC after their win over Inniscarra at Riverstown.

Their win came despite playing for almost 40 minutes, including injury time, after Jason Mannix got a straight red card after 26 minutes.

He will be a loss to his side in the semi-final and it was one of two red cards. The other was shown to Cian O’Connor, who was a sub and was sent off even though he never came on the pitch.

Overall Bride will be delighted with the win they fully deserved and when they were needed their star players, the Roches, Eoin and Brian, along with the likes of Patrick O’Flynn, Adam Walsh and Conleith Ryan stood up.

Padraig Holland opened the scoring for Inniscarra from a free before Ronan O’Connell replied. A magnificent point from a sideline by Ryan put Bride in front before white flags from Owen McCarthy and David O’Keeffe made it 0-3 to 0-2 to Scarra.

Two frees from Walsh put Bride back in front and he added another from a 65. A great team move, involving Cillian Tobin and Ronan O’Connell set up Josh Ahern for a goal.

Mannix then got a straight red card after a scuffle, which also saw Ryan get a yellow. But it didn’t upset Bride in any way with Walsh scoring from another placed ball. Holland and Walsh exchanged frees which left Bride 1-10 to 0-5 in front at half-time.

Walsh and Brian Roche increased their lead before Holland raised a green flag from a free.

Another Roche white flag, followed by one from Ryan kept Bride in control. Scarra kept battling and McCarthy saw his effort on goal go narrowly wide.

Two points from Holland, along with scores for McCarthy and David O’Keeffe trimmed the gap to five but again Bride responded with points from Ryan and Walsh.

Sean O’Donoghue and Holland scored for Scarra but it was too little too late.

Scorers for Bride Rovers: A Walsh 0-9 (0-7 f, 0-2 65), J Ahern 1-1, C Ryan (0-1 sl), R O’Connell 0-3 each, B Roche 0-2.

Inniscarra: P Holland 1-7 (1-4 f, 0-3 65), O McCarthy (0-1 f), D O’Keeffe 0-2 each, S O’Donoghue 0-1.

BRIDE ROVERS: C Hogan; C Hazelwood, P O’Flynn, D Cashman; K Kearney, E Roche, S O’Connor; B Roche, J Mannix; C Ryan, R O’Connell, A Walsh; C Tobin, D Dooley, J Ahern.

Subs: W Finnegan for D Dooley (50), L Roche for C Tobin (58), D Barry for J Ahern (60).

INNISCARRA: J O’Keeffe; C O’Leary, B O’Mahony, C Lombard; S Sheehan, L Ryanb, D Keane; J Harrington, S O’Donoghue; O McCarthy, P Holland, A McCarthy; D O’Keeffe, C Casey, J Roche.

Subs: C O’Leary for J Roche (47), M Murphy for D O’Keeffe (54), J O’Sullivan for C Lombard (56).

Referee: David Daly, Brian Dillons.