Division 6 FL: St Nick’s fire seven goals past Aghinagh to clinch promotion
Jake Brosnan, St.Nick's breaks free of John Lynch, Aghinagh during their McCarthy Insurance Group Football League Division 6 clash at the Glen Field, Cork. Picture: Jim Coughlan.
In a game where the goals just wouldn’t stop, the northside club fired seven past Aghinagh to secure a comprehensive win – and, with it, promotion to Division 5 for 2026.
It’s been a sharp, swift slide down the grades in recent years for Nick’s. But that fall has finally been halted — for now at least.
Last season brought the threat of another drop, but they pulled off a dramatic final-day escape against St James’ to hold onto Premier Junior status. This year couldn’t have gotten off to a better start.
With Cobh, Canovee and St Nick’s all claiming wins on Friday night to move to 14 points, scoring difference was the tiebreaker. Nick’s did more than enough, their ruthless display at the Glen ensuring they came away second in the three-way race.
By full-time they’d won by 12. The job had long been done. But what they produced over that first half-hour was something else.
Five first-half goals from eight attempts. The first of which was saved brilliantly by Anthony Kiely. At that stage, nine minutes had gone, and Aghinagh were up 1-1 to 0-1.
Then came the turning point – a simple, flukish mistake. It was a mistake which completely unravelled Aghinagh’s challenge.
Jamie Corkery shot for a point from distance. It dropped short. Kiely misjudged it, then lost his footing trying to recover. It allowed Gavin Marshall in for the easy finish. That left it 1-3 apiece.
But the northside onslaught followed. St Nick’s ran at their opponents, gunning for goal. Again and again. They ran hard, played unselfishly, and punished Aghinagh every time they got in behind.
Conor McCarthy had two attempts in the space of 30 seconds. Both rattled Kiely’s far post. Aghinagh were very fortunate. But their luck quickly ran out.
A minute later, Danny Morris pointed – and straight from the restart, Seán Horgan buried the second goal.
One minute later, Jack O’Sullivan added a third. Three minutes after that, Marshall had his second. In just eight minutes, Nick’s had gone from level to 10 ahead.
They weren’t finished yet.
Danny Morris closed the half with another brilliantly worked Nick’s move. It was 5-5 to 1-5 at the break. That was 6-6 to 1-6 after 35 minutes, as Jake Brosnan joined the list of goalscorers.
The pace and power of Nick’s completely overpowered their opponents, even if they did drastically improve from there.
Over the next 15 minutes, Aghinagh landed 0-7. Con Buckley was chief scorer, supported by Willie Coakley, and Donagh O’Riordan, who put in a big shift at centre-back.
Buckley even had a penalty, but it was saved during their best spell. That summed up their night.
With the score 6-6 to 1-13 in the closing stages, third time was finally the charm for Conor McCarthy, who got their seventh and final major in the 51st minute.
A ruthless, relentless performance – and with it, promotion secured.
D Morris 1-3, G Marshall 2-0, J O’Sullivan 1-2 (0-1 f), C McCarthy, J Brosnan, S Horgan 1-0 each, J Corkery 0-2.
C Buckley 0-7 (0-4 f, 0-1 45), M McCarthy 1-0, G O’Sullivan 0-3, A Twomey, D Ambrose, L Ring 0-1 each.
R Cronin; D Dunlea, S Horgan, C Horgan; Z Lynch, D Wall, F O’Driscoll; K McCarthy Coade, R Long; J O’Sullivan, J Brosnan, C McCarthy; G Marshall, J Corkery, D Morris (c).
D Brosnan for J Brosnan (38); D Marshall for O’Driscoll, C Maguire for Wall (both 52), R Brosnan for Morris (55 inj).
A Kiely; O Cummins, J Lynch, Dylan O’Riordan; T Buckley, Donagh O’Riordan (c), D Ambrose; J Ambrose, M McCarthy; L Ring, G O’Sullivan, S Kelleher; W Coakley, A Twomey, C Buckley.
D Corkery for Coakley (42), P Sullivan for Kiely (46), A McMahon for Kelleher (49).
David Daly (Brian Dillons)
App?
