ADRIGOLE 0-10
GABRIEL RANGERS 1-5
MATTHEW HURLEY REPORTS
IN A rainy and blustery Kealkill, Adrigole won the West Cork derby in the McCarthy Insurance intermediate A Football Championship – and with it came several prizes.
As well as the top spot in Group 1, the Beara club is also guaranteed a semi-final spot.
When Kevin Goggin got his second point and the insurance score, the Adrigole sideline went berserk, showing what this meant.
‘We’re absolutely delighted. It was a tough battle out there,’ ecstatic Adrigole manager Tim O’Sullivan told The Southern Star.
‘We’ve got a four-week window, which is massive. We’re really looking forward to the semi-final.
‘We got there last year but lost to Mitchelstown after extra time, this is where we want to be and we want to push on and make a county final. It is progress every year, fair enough, but now at this stage I think we need to push on.’
Despite the loss, Gabriel Rangers progressed to the knockout stage too, a fate they knew before throw-in. Overall, this was a scrapy game with both teams providing blood and thunder.
The Beara side had a sizable gust in the opening half and Ben O’Sullivan utilised it brilliantly with a boomer of a point after just 35 seconds. Gabriels didn’t muster up much in the opening half, only recording six attempts but they did hit 1-1 without reply.
After brilliant work from Sean Kelleher, he found Gerald O’Callaghan in an ocean of space before the latter roofed the ball to the net after three minutes. Keith O’Driscoll pointed just a minute later for Rangers in what proved to be their last score of the half.
After a fast opening, the game went 15 minutes without a score in a half that had plenty of stoppages. The barren score spell ended when Adrigole’s Cian O’Shea split the posts. O’Sullivan bagged another point in what could have been more but for a brilliant fingertip save from Liam Hegarty in the Rangers goal.
A long-range free from Neil O’Sullivan and a short-range one from O’Shea meant the Beara men led 0-5 to 1-1 at the short whistle.
‘At half time, with that gale of wind, you’d expect to be a few more points up. The four points we got before half time and then Cian’s point right after the break, that made a platform for us,’ Tim O’Sullivan said.
‘It was a hard goal to score into against the wind in the second half but the main thing was our backs were outstanding in that half. We closed down their dangerous forward; they have three or four top-class forwards. The fact we were able to close them down was massive and we got savage turnovers. I think in the last ten minutes, our fitness really showed. It was a real battle.’
O’Shea pointed three minutes into the second spell, but Kelleher responded for Gabriels, their first score in 38 minutes. O’Callaghan hit a lovely point on the run to get Gabriels their second on the bounce, but Charlie O’Sullivan cancelled that out almost instantly for Adrigole, 0-7 to 1-3 with ten minutes left.
O’Shea struck another free to give Adrigole another boost, but Paddy O’Driscoll made it a tense finale as Gabriels kept battling. It was then super sub Goggin who stepped up to the plate with two clutch scores to drive the Beara side over the line.
‘Kevin is outstanding. He has come on in so many games down the years and he has a famous left leg of his that has knocked over frees and last minute points. He has the experience and steadied the ship again,’ the Adrigole manager added.
Killian O’Sullivan pointed a consolation score for Rangers who had David Roycroft dismissed late on.
Scorers
Adrigole: Cian O’Shea 0-4 (3f); Ben O’Sullivan, Kevin Goggin 0-2 each; Charlie O’Sullivan, Neil O’Sullivan (f) 0-1 each.
Gabriel Rangers: Gerald O’Callaghan 1-1; Keith O’Driscoll, Paddy O’Driscoll, Sean Kelleher (f), Killian O’Sullivan 0-1 each.
Adrigole: William O’Sullivan; Cathal O’Sullivan, Fergal Carey, Liam Harrington; Darragh O’Sullivan, Cian O’Neill, Seanie O’Sullivan; Neil O’Sullivan, Sean O’Shea; Cian O’Shea, Jason Harrington, Charlie O’Sullivan; Connie O’Shea, Gerard O’Shea, Ben O’Sullivan.
Subs: Denis Collins for J Harrington (13, inj), Diarmuid O’Sullivan for Darragh O’Sullivan (57), Kevin Goggin for Charlie O’Sullivan (60).
Gabirel Rangers: Liam Hegarty; Liam Hodnett, David Regan, David Roycroft; Killian O’Sullivan, Killian O’Brien, Luka Bowen; Kieran Roycroft, Sean Kelleher; Luke Nolan, Gerald O’Callaghan, Paddy O’Driscoll; Mark Cronin, James O’Regan, Keith O’Driscoll.
Subs: Sasca Walden for M Cronin (38), Jordi O’Brien for J O’Regan (56).
Referee: Jimmy O’Sullivan (St Colum’s).
