Dohenys 1-13
Fermoy 1-8
JJ HURLEY REPORTS
DOHENYS’ ability to take their scores proved crucial in their McCarthy Insurance Senior A Football Championship Group 2 win against Fermoy in Ballygarvan on Saturday night.
Seven wides in the opening half and conceding a goal to Fionn Herlihy on 22 minutes gave the Avondhu side a mountain to climb in the second half. It was a task they were unable to complete despite outscoring their opponents by 1-4 to 0-3 for the second period.
For the West Cork outfit their failure to push on and kill off this game was recognised by their manager Declan O’Dwyer as he admitted their second-half performance was not good enough – they only landed three points, two of which came from frees. The big plus was getting their campaign back on track after the opening round loss to table-toppers Kanturk.
‘Look, the second half was disappointing, the players are all saying it and they know it themselves – it's not good enough to score three points. But we are out of here with a win tonight,’ O’Dwyer said.
Playing with the aid of a breeze the West Cork outfit led after two minutes as Gavin Farr sent over a point, followed by a Keith White score supplied to him by Cullan Barry. Fermoy registered their first score of the evening with a Gary O’Callaghan point, as Barry and Ben Twomey swapped scores to leave the tally at 0-3 to 0-2 after ten minutes.
As Fermoy continued to miss the target, last year’s beaten finalist in the competition had five unanswered points as White (2), Barry, Gavin Farr and Herlihy all got their names on the score-sheet. After 22 minutes Dohenys led by 0-8 to 0-2.
Two minutes later Herlihy extended that margin as he found the net with a well-taken goal. Two more scores from White and Farr to another reply from Twomey left it 1-10 to 0-3 at the break.
Early Fermoy second-half pressure yielded a point as Lardner sent over a score from a free but the West Cork men had Barry responding with one of their own. Dohenys should then have been out of sight as a neat move between Herlihy and White found Donal Rice but he palmed the chance wide of the target.
To their credit, Fermoy stayed in the contest as Lardner and Padraig De Róiste added two points and a single White reply left the scoreboard at 1-12 to 0-8 after 54 minutes.
Finally, with minutes remaining Fermoy got the breakthrough as a Clancy pass let Twomey in for a goal. Despite the lifeline there was to be no fairytale ending as the last score fell to Paudie Crowley and the Dunmanway side.
Scorers - Doheny: K White 0-5 (1f); F Herlihy 1-1; G Farr (3f), C Barry (2f) 0-3 each; P Crowley 0-1. Fermoy: B Twomey 1-4 (3f); D Lardner 0-2 (2f); G O’Callaghan, P De Roiste 0-1 each.
Dohenys: S Daly; D Rice, D Collins, J Farrell; B O’Donovan, C Barry, C Daly; A Manix, R Coakley; A O’Donovan, F Herlihy, S Barry; K White, G Farr, B Murphy. Subs: J Collins for B O’Donovan (44), P Crowley for G Farr (52), D Collins for B Murphy (60).
Fermoy: L Coleman; L Ahern, P Murphy, R O’ Sullivan; J Molloy; D O’Carroll, G Larnder; J O’Brien, G O’ Callaghan; D Dawson, M Brennan, D Daly; T Clancy, P De Róiste, B Twomey. Subs: L Cronin for R O’Sullivan (25), D Lardner for G O’Callaghan (ht), J Carr for D Daly (ht), S Power for D Dawson (ht), A Ahern for M Brennan (47).
Referee: Alan O’Connor (Ballygarvan)
