Premier SHC: Champions St Finbarr's shake free of Charleville to reach last four
Ben Cunningham of St Finbarr's tries to evade Charleville's Michael O'Flynn in the Co-op SuperStores Cork Premier SHC quarter-final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Picture: Larry Cummins
The Co-op SuperStores Cork Premier SHC title remains in St Finbarr’s hands but they had to earn victory over Charleville at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday evening.
Not until Brian Hayes’ 56th-minute goal was a place in the semi-finals made safe, moving the Barrs 1-19 to 0-15 in front. A Shane Hurley save from Jack Doyle moments later franked their progression to a meeting with Midleton.
Improvement will be needed there but champions know that quarter-finals are for winning. For Charleville, the regret will lie mainly in the fact that they had to take on such an assignment without the injured Darragh Fitzgibbon and Andrew Cagney before then losing Danny O’Flynn at half-time.
The midfielder had scored two late first-half points to leave them trailing by a point, 0-13 to 0-12, at the break but, as good as Charleville played, they will rue the stand-out statistic of 11 wides and another shot that dropped short.
In front with early points from Gavin Kelleher and Conor Buckley – who had four superb efforts to his name in the opening period – the North Cork side led until the 24th minute, when Ben Cunningham’s fourth of the evening made it 0-10 to 0-9 for the champions. Even then, the Togher side were not allowed to move clear in a procession as Charleville worked hard out of possession to force turnovers.
While a pair of points in quick succession from Cunningham and Jack Cahalane had the Barrs 0-13 to 0-10 in front, Danny O’Flynn reduced the arrears after Charleville had done well to half the Barrs at midfield. As the game ticked into injury time, Jack Doyle was very unlucky to register the 11th wide as his effort – set up by incredible build-up play from Buckley, despite being without hurley – hit the post and bounced left rather than right.
Even then, they pressed and O’Flynn got his second after doing well to snaffle a loose ball on halfway. Unfortunately for him and Charleville, it was his last act as he was forced off at half-time and the Barrs hit six unanswered points on the resumption to move seven clear.
With Ethan Twomey becoming more prominent at midfield, they augmented their advantage point by point with Conor Cahalane and Pádraig Buggy getting on the scoresheet as Ben Cunningham, Buckley and Jack Cahalane carried forward their first-half form.
A fourth point from the latter made it 0-19 to 0-12 but, having been held to a draw by Charleville in Mallow last year – the only championship game the Barrs failed to win – they knew that that wasn’t necessarily that.
Three Jack Doyle points – two frees – had the gap down to four points with 12 minutes left while the Barrs began to shoot some scoreable wides. Unfortunately for Charleville, though, goalscoring chances were rare to the point of non-existent, with Jamie Burns as solid and dependable as ever at full-back for the Barrs.
When a green flag did arrive, it was at the other end. Billy Hennessy’s diagonal ball for Hayes looked like it might leak out of play, but the attacker kept the ball alive and then weaved through a couple of challenges before coolly slotting home. A seven-point lead with as many minutes left was not going to be thieved.
Earlier, the high point for Charleville was when David Forde, a late replacement for Cagney, put them 0-4 to 0-1 in front on seven minutes but the Barrs were never going to panic. Ben Cunningham’s shooting sights were in from the moment he opened his account with a free from distance while William Buckley’s ability to almost always be in the right place and do the right thing yielded three points in that opening half.
As they got on top, Jack Cahalane had two points and tested Cian Collins with a goal effort – the Barrs had an advantage and Cunningham converted the free when play was called back. A one-point half-time lead was far from a sure thing but the holders produced the strong start to the second half to tighten their grip on proceedings and advance to the last four.
B Cunningham 0-9 (0-4 f), J Cahalane, W Buckley 0-4 each, B Hayes 1-0, P Buggy 0-2, C Cahalane, D Cahalane, S Cunningham 0-1 each.
J Doyle (0-3 f), C Buckley 0-4 each, D O’Flynn, J O’Callaghan 0-2 each, G Kelleher, O O’Connell, D Forde 0-1 each.
S Hurley; E Keane, J Burns, C Doolan; B Hennessy, D Cahalane, E Finn; E Twomey, C Cahalane; B Cunningham, W Buckley, B Hayes; J Cahalane, P Buggy, S Cunningham.
J Wigginton Barrett for S Cunningham (51), B Ramsey for Twomey (60, injured).
C Collins; D Butler, J Meade, F Cagney; A Dennehy, M O’Flynn, J Buckley; J O’Callaghan, D O’Flynn; G Kelleher, C Buckley, O O’Connell; J Doyle, D Forde, T Hawe.
J Kilcommons for D O’Flynn (half-time, injured), J O’Brien for Kelleher (46), K Cagney for M O’Flynn (52), R Carroll for Forde, S Gleeson for C Buckley (both 60).
N O’Neill (Midleton).
App?
