Goals key as Bishopstown beat Clyda Rovers
Bishopstown's Michael Nunan crashes the ball to the Clyda Rovers net as Patrick Ryan closes in, during their Senior AFC clash at Blarney. Picture: David Keane.
A crucial win for Bishopstown in the McCarthy Insurance Senior A Football Championship as they saw off Clyda Rovers at sun-drenched Blarney on Saturday.
In a group that also consists of Newmarket and Knocknagree it was vital for the city side to get off to a winning start and they did do in style with a display of controlled football.
The winners had many heroes, none more than Conor Dunne who finished with a 1-5 tally. The graft from the likes of Peter Casey and Diarmuid Lester also laid the foundation for this success.
It only took 20 seconds for Bishopstown to open their scoring account courtesy of a Dunne point following a placed ball.
The Avondhu side went into the game missing star players like Conor Corbett and Paudie Kissane but they showed great resilience in the third minute when Conor Flanagan kicked a monstrous classy levelling point.
Clyda now looked to be in the ascendancy and a superb David Cooney point a minute later edged them ahead but they suffered a sucker punch goal in the 12th minute.
A high ball into the square by Dunne wasn’t dealt with by the Clyda defence and the alert Michael Nunan pounced for a quality goal. The overall play was scrappy with Clyda Rovers struggling with their free taking and with 12 minutes remaining to the interval they trailed 1-3 to 0-2.
After going 14 minutes without a score Clyda responded in style with consecutive points in the space of a minute from Cormac O’Reilly and Cian O’Sullivan.
The Town had a great opportunity three minutes from the break but Paul Honahan missed a golden goal chance that was eventually called back for a free that Dunne converted. In a half where both teams huffed and puffed Bishopstown went in at the break commanding a four-point lead, 1-5 to 0-4.
Credit to the Bishopstown management they made some astute positional changes at the break as they pushed Dunne and Casey to the forward line that posed Clyda all sorts of problems.
Indeed it only took the city side one minute into the restart to put their stamp on this game when they opened with a stunning goal.
A terrific Casey run found Dunne who had little difficulty guiding the ball to the empty net.
When Clyda look back on this game they will rue the amount of turnovers they had over the hour and after Cian O’Sullivan kicked a classy point in the 39th minute they were held scoreless for the next 11 minutes.
It was evident when Clyda lost possession Bishopstown were quick on the break and their movement and pace blew their opponents away with ease.
On the other side of the coin Clyda did show plenty of spirit coming down the stretch and late in the game they sought the all-important goal that would have tied this contest.
To be fair Bishopstown always looked in control and despite Clyda pushing them to the wire they can look forward to their next outing against Newmarket with some confidence.
C Dunne 1-5 (0-4 f), M Nunan 1-0, B Clifford 0-2, P Casey 0-1.
D Cooney 0-5 (0-4 f), C O’Sullivan 0-2, C Flanagan, C O’Reilly, N Hanley, K Graham (0-1 each).
C O’Driscoll; P Casey, M Murphy, L Hogan; K Murphy, E Byrne, J Murphy; C Dunne, D O’Connor; D Holland, D Lester, M Nunan; B Clifford, P Honohan, K McFadden.
S Dennehy; C Kenny, P Ryan, D Buckley; C O’Reilly, G Deane, A Walsh; K Graham, C Flanagan; C Kelly, C Walsh, D Walsh; C O’Sullivan, D Cooney, A Kelly.
N Hanley for A Walsh (h-t), C Buckley for C Kelly (38), M Forde for P Ryan (53), A Walsh for C O’Reilly (53).
Robert Whelan (Gleann na Laoi).
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