MSL soccer: Bandon beat Ballincollig to advance in Super Cup 

Ballincollig 0

Bandon 2

Bandon are through to the third round of the Beamish Stout Junior Super Cup following their 2-0 win over Ballincollig at The Landing Field on Saturday.

A goal in each half from Brian O’Donoghue and Jack L’Estange helped the third division visitors to victory over their higher-ranked opponents.

Taking bigger scalps hasn’t been unusual for Bandon this season — they reached the semi-final of the Junior League Cup, beating higher-ranked sides Avondale United A, Leeds, and Lakewood Athletic on their way to the semi-final where they lost to Midleton.

Promotion is their main priority, though, and that early cup run was reflected in the league table with six wins and two draws from their opening eight games in the league but recent league results haven’t been great, with just one win since the turn of the year, and they currently sit in sixth position in the table.

Ballincollig operate in the second division and are also sixth in the table, seven points outside of the promotion places, but they have plenty of games in hand on all of the teams above them in the table.

Despite both sides being short a few regulars, Ballincollig would have still been favourites in this contest and they started well with regular marksman Mark O’Keeffe forcing Bandon keeper Cian Jacob into a save for a corner inside the opening 10 minutes.

Two minutes later Jacob easily dealt with a Stephen Linehan free kick from 25 yards.

It was the visitors who broke the deadlock however; a surging break from midfield by Chinaza Ogwudiegwu came to a halt when he was fouled on the left side of the penalty area and O’Donoghue’s free kick sailed over Ballincollig goalkeeper Matthew Thompson’s head and into the far top corner of the net.

Ballincollig tried for a quick response and O’Keeffe had another effort in the box saved by Jacob for a corner and from the flag kick John Corkery’s header was cleared off the line with the help of the underside of the crossbar amid Collig claims that the ball had crossed the line.

Midway through the half, Ballincollig’s Stephen Murray picked up a pass wide on the left and headed for goal, but his shot from outside the box flew high and wide.

Bandon weren’t without their chances and six minutes later Darragh Collins-O’Brien got on the end of a corner from the left at the far post, but Shane Finn made a good block on his goalbound shot.

As the minutes ticked away in the first half the visitors’ Eoin Buckley had a snap-shot in the box go wide as Bandon went in at the break with a narrow lead.

The West Cork side got a fantastic start to the second period and doubled their advantage five minutes in.

A ball in behind the home defence saw Thompson advance to intervene but L’Estrange won the race for the ball and knocked it past the keeper before firing into an empty net despite pressure from  defender Kenneth Murphy.

The home side had it all to do but still had enough time to recover.

They applied plenty of pressure, but Bandon’s defence stood firm with Player of the Match Brian McSweeney making an excellent challenge on O’Keeffe inside the penalty area as the striker lined up a shot.

Ballincollig continued to press and James O’Mahony fired over from 25 yards on 65 minutes, and 10 minutes later O’Keeffe got in behind the Bandon defence after a delivery from the left; Jacob left his line and the Collig man lifted the ball over the keeper, but it went narrowly wide of the target.

O’Keeffe was in again late on, taking advantage of a poor kickout by Jacob, but after racing clear, his shot was blocked by Bandon defender Collins O’Brien.

Ballincollig ran out of time, however, and Bandon advanced to the third round.

BALLINCOLLIG: Matthew Thompson, Kenneth Murphy, John Corkery, Stephen Linehan, Adam Shaw, Stephen Wallace, James O’Mahony, Shane Finn, Kieran Bray, Mark O’Keeffe, Stephen Murray.

Subs: Callum O’Leary for Murray (h/t), Daniel O’Neill for Bray (57), Liam Hayes for Corkery (67), Gary Leahy for Wallace (83).

BANDON: Cian Jacob, Coen Crowley, Darragh Collins-O’Brien, Jack Murphy, Brian McSweeney, Inga Magade, Brian O’Donoghue, James Campbell, Jack L’Estrange, Eoin Buckley, Chinaza Ogwudiegwu.

Sub: Jack Wycherley for Buckley (64), Ben Harrington for Ogwudiegwu (70), John O’Callaghan for L’Estange (79).

Referee: Sumate Virak.