Premier SFC: Nemo Rangers never took Newcestown lightly, says Robbie O'Dwyer

The bookmakers may had Nemo Rangers as strong favourites to overcome Newcestown and reach a fourth straight McCarthy Insurance Group Premier SFC final, manager Robbie O’Dwyer was not expecting anything other than what transpired.

Extra time was required before the city side prevailed by 2-14 to 0-19, with the winning score from Mark Cronin putting Nemo into the lead for the first time since the first half of normal time.

Another final with neighbours St Finbarr’s awaits and O’Dwyer is in no doubt that Nemo had to earn their place.

“Everyone was saying we were going to hammer Newcestown,” he said, “that was never going to happen from our point of view.

“We played them in the group stage last year and David Buckley got injured after about ten minutes and we still only got over the line.

“They are a good side – people say they are dogged, this that and the other, but they have some good footballers as well. They showed that and I think people need to take a look at themselves, they had a great chance today.

“I feel sorry for Newcestown, in fairness they put up a right battle. Semi-finals are about winning and we are lucky to get over the line.”

Winning semi-finals has become a habit for Nemo – since 1998, only the 2014 and 2016 defeats to Ballincollig stand in the debit column, against 17 last-four victories – but the lead-in to this one was slightly different in that they earned the quarter-final bye for the first time.

“We had a good couple of challenge games,” O’Dwyer said, “and we had an A-versus-B then last weekend. I didn’t think it did us any harm, I thought we started well, didn’t push.

“We let them dictate the pace for periods in the first half. But that’s how it goes. It was anybody’s game.

“We were standing off in the second quarter. Not what we would normally do. We let them dictate and were on the back foot. And in fairness to them then, they were getting the scores and got on top of us. “

A half-time scoreline of 0-8 each turned into a 0-15 to 0-8 deficit early in the second half, but Nemo never panicked.

“At the end of the day, I think Kieran Histon’s goal turned the tide for us,” O’Dwyer said.

“That was the start of it. After that we started to get that bit momentum. As it turned out, it was still nip and tuck all the way down. It could have gone anyway at the end.

“In extra time, if Barry Cripps had got that goal [his chance hit the post] that might have pushed us on. It didn’t. They went ahead, we levelled.

“We went ahead, they levelled. There was nothing mjuch in it at the end, you could see bodies were tired. A point at that stage was going to make a difference and we were lucky enough to come out on the right side.”