St Finbarr's stave off IAFC relegation against Glanworth
St Finbarr's Thomas Egan shoots from Glanworth's Jerome Fitzgibbon in the IAFC match in Glenville. Picture: Howard Crowdy
St Finbarr’s avoided relegation from the McCarthy Insurance Group Intermediate A Football Championship by defeating Glanworth in Glenville.
All the pressure was on the city side to deliver following defeats earlier in their campaign to Ballinora and Adrigole, and they got the job done with relative ease in North Cork. The Blues got it done with a performance that saw six players put the ball over the bar, including All-Ireland winner Michael Shields getting two points from play.
Cian O’Sullivan topped the charts when the referee blew for full-time after tallying 0-5, with his haul including an orange flag from play. Jamie Lenihan also nailed a two-pointer from a free, as the full-forward finished the game with 0-4 to his name.
This was enough for the club to get the better of Glanworth, a side that kept their season alive through goals from Dave Pyne. It always felt the Barrs had some level of control, even when the city side went into the break leading 0-6 to 1-1.
Everything just felt so easy for them, and this reflected in the wides tally during the first half as Glanworth missed the target four times in addition to seeing three efforts drop short. The Blues did not have that problem as they mis-hit in front of the posts just three times during the same period.
Pyne did give Glanworth the lead with a free inside 90 seconds and this was followed by St Finbarr’s rattling off 0-5 with Shields getting a brace during this spell. Cian O’Sullivan contributed two points and the burst was polished with Colin Lyons and Adam Lyne splitting the posts.
Glanworth then got a goal after Pyne escaped his marker and punched the ball over the goal-line in the 18th minute.
The Barrs reset finished the half by limiting the Avondhu side to one more score. Cian O’Sullivan managed to get in at the other end, and this made the scoreboard read 0-6 to 1-1 at the break.
Glanworth quickly pushed up on the restart and their struggles in front of the posts continued with Pyne adding another wide to their column.
Cian O’Sullivan responded by cutting inside from outside the arc and curling over a two-pointer, which edged the Barr’s further in front at 0-8 to 1-1 in the 32nd minute.
A Lenihan 45 extended their advantage along with Colin Lyons fisting the ball over the bar, just as Glanworth starting pushing for a goal. Darragh O’Brien set that up with a needle-like pass for Pyne to finish with the inside of his right boot in the 45th minute.
This made it 0-12 to 2-1 and Glanworth tried to capitalise on this by pouring forward. That gave room for St Finbarr’s to break and out of this came a Lenihan two-pointer. Jamie Fogarty retaliated and Pyne did hit three in a row in a late rescue mission.
The Barrs remained in front at 0-13 to 2-5 and they comfortably saw out the win with Sean Kirby and Cian O’Sullivan putting the ball over the bar during the three minutes of injury time.
C O’Sullivan 0-5 (1 2pt), J Lenihan 0-4 (1 2pt f, 1 45), M Shields, A Lyne 0-2 each, S Kirby, C Lyons 0-1 each.
D Pyne 2-5 (0-2 f), J Fogarty 0-1.
C Haines; J Kennefick, D O’Kelly, E Hurley; C Lyons, D Conroy, M Ahern; T O’Keeffe, R Fitzpatrick; D O’Brien, A Lyne, T Egan; M Shields, J Lenihan, C O’Sullivan.
I O’Callaghan for Conroy (56); S Kirby for O’Keeffe (58).
C Cotter; S Mullins, J Fogarty, P Condon; Diarmuid O’Brien, J Fitzgibbon, J Walsh; S Finn D Pyne; J O’Sullivan, Darragh O’Brien, C Lloyd; G O’Neill, N Fogarty, S Condon.
M Moloney for Walsh (28); M Sheehan for O’Sullivan (38), P O’Driscoll for Lloyd (38).
Anthony O'Regan (Youghal)
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