Strong start stands to Beara U21 footballers on the road to Carrigaline
Beara's Tomás O'Connor passes the ball downfield during the Cork ETB U21 football championship quarter-final in Carrigaline. Picture: David Creedon
Beara produced a dogged performance to beat Carrigaline in the Cork ETB U21 A Football quarter-final on Sunday in Carrigaline.
Beara will now advance to face Castlehaven in an eagerly awaited semi-final, as the division seek to avenge their loss to Bishopstown in the final two years ago.
Having conceded home advantage, this was always going to be a difficult assignment as they faced one of the emerging powers of the game in the county, Carrigaline. If they were overawed, they never showed any nerves as they took the fight to the South East side from the start.
Callum Downing was an inspiration from the start and covered every blade of grass over the hour as Carrigaline failed to get into the game in the first 30 minutes.
Trailing by 0-7 to 0-1 after 22 minutes, a black card for the impressive Thomas O’Connor moments later gave Carrigaline the momentum they needed. They went on to lead by 1-6 to 0-8 on 47 minutes.
The home supporters could have expected to see their side kick on, but a superb two-point free from Jack Crowley on 53 minutes had the pendulum swinging back towards the visitors.
Carrigaline, led by the hardworking Luke Jordan, looked for the cracks in the Beara defence, but the gate was tightly shut as the defenders continued to throw their bodies on the line.
There was to be no late draw as, with their tails up, it was Beara who pushed on to close out the contest.
Playing with a strong breeze at their backs, it was the Beara side who made all the early running as they forced the home side onto the back foot.
Sean Spencer opened his side’s account and O’Connor doubled their lead on 10 minutes, before Killian McNulty had Carrigaline’s first score on the board.
A brace of two-pointers from Crowley and O’Connor had the visitors making good use of the strong wind at their backs during the first 30 minutes.
Oisín O’Connell had a half-chance of a goal on 20 minutes, but Eoghan O'Donoghue saved well as Beara led by 0-7 to 0-1 on 22 minutes, thanks to another O’Connor point.
A mini revival, with points from Thomas Vaughan and Ben Corkery Delaney, left the score at the break at 0-7 to 0-3.
An opening blitz of scores from Jordan (2) and Niall O Keeffe’s goal looked to have given the home side the advantage of a point with 12 minutes remaining.
But it was the visitors who pushed on, outscoring the home side to advance to a mouth-watering county semi-final.
L Jordan 0-3 (0-1 f), Niall O Keeffe 1-0, B Corkery Delaney 0-2 (0-1 f, 0-1 45), Killian McNulty, T Vaughan 0-1 each.
T O’Connor (1 2pt), J Crowley (2 2ptf) 0-5 each, S Spencer, Callum Downing, Conor Downing 0-1 each.
R Delaney; E Murphy, T Foley, M Kieran; B Murphy, K McCarthy, J Shanahan; N O Keeffe, D Sutton; E Aherne, O O’Connell, K McNulty; L Jordan, B Corkery Delaney, T Vaughan.
S Turner for J Shanahan (36); C Hanratty for N O Keeffe (45); S Collins for T Vaughan (48); C Murphy for D Sutton (55).
E O’Donoghue (Glengarriff); S Collins (Adrigole), Callum Downing (Adrigole), M Orpen (Castletownbere); Conor Downing (Adrigole), M Downing (Adrigole), J Hanley (Castletownbere); C O’Shea (Urhan), O O’Sullivan (Adrigole); U Murphy (Castletownbere), J Crowley (Adrigole), Brian O’Sullivan Connell (Glengarriff); T O’Sullivan (Adrigole), S Spencer (Castlehaven), T O’Connor (Adrigole).
J O’Sullivan (Urhan) for T O’Sullivan; O Lynch (Urhan) for S Collins (55); Olan Murphy (Castletownbere) for T O’Connor (58).
Connor McCarthy (Rosscarbery).
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