BLACK was the colour of Carbery Rangers away jersey worn against Valley Rovers in the final round of group games in the Bons Secours Premier Senior Football Championship, and it turned out to be a black day for the Rosscarbery club.
Ross had their destiny in their own hands going into this fixture in Timoleague, having secured draws against Castlehaven and Clonakilty, the perceived stronger teams in Group A.
But it was Valleys who produced the performance needed to avoid a relegation play-off and then condemn the Rangers to a bottom-of-the-table finish, avoiding a relegation playoff themselves on score difference.
Valleys triumphed 1-14 to 0-11, the goal coming in injury time courtesy of Eoghan Delaney as Ross pushed up in an effort to save their season.
Valley Rovers manager Barry Casey must be extremely proud of his charges, but he must also feel the tinge of irony attached. Ross hammered Valleys back in Division 1 of the county league, which signalled a change of leadership and the Skibb man stepped into breach. They ended up being relegated to Division 2 but their three games in the championship have seen incremental improvement, culminating in this composed and highly-organised display.
We cannot forget either that it was only a couple of seasons ago that Valleys defeated Nemo Rangers in the group stage of the championship, then under the stewardship of Paul Holland. Their player pool wouldn’t have changed hugely in the meantime, so one has to wonder, did Ross read into the talk that their hard work was done in the first couple of rounds and that this one was just going to happen for them based on form? These Valleys players had other ideas from the get-go.
All Valleys’ big players stood up. Fiachra Lynch rolled back the years with 0-8, ably assisted inside by Billy Crowley, brother of Jack, the Irish international rugby player. Jacob O’Driscoll and Adam Walsh-Murphy were athletic and aggressive in the half-back line and Darragh Murphy was a dominant presence around the middle. I’ve seen their goalkeeper Eoin O’Sullivan play a few times this year – he is a young guy with a superb kickout, good hands and cool under the crossbar.
Ross boss Seamus Hayes and his management team will be brutally disappointed this week. There was a bit of Murphy’s Law thrown in as well; what can go wrong will go wrong. The wind seemed to be favouring Valleys in the first half but faded in the second half. Veteran attacker John Hayes was sprung at half time as Ross trailed by two but pulled his hamstring on his first attempt to lose his direct opponent. John O’Brien was withdrawn after picking up a yellow card early but returned late on only to pick up a second and get sent off with Valleys already down to 14 and Ross pushing hard for parity. If you’re a manager and you haven’t had one of these days, you’re lucky.
But in the cold face of it, it was Valleys who played with all the pace, purpose and aggression. If you start a game without those three key ingredients to performance, it is almost impossible to kick in mid battle. Ross had been ultra-defensive in the early rounds but set out to try and keep more attacking players up in this one. They had registered 0-11 points against Castlehaven and only 0-6 against Clon. Another 0-11 here just wasn’t going to do it.
There were more attacking players staying up but the pace of play to get fast ball to the O’Rourkes, Ciarán Santry and Darragh Hayes just wasn’t quick enough. Ross played the ball through the hands, Valleys filtered back and stifled Ross. Careless and laborious transition play, it played into the hands of crisp and aggressive tackling from the Valleys rearguard.
Fiachra Lynch spent most of his time on the edge of the small square as Ross pushed out and tried to mine turnovers in the middle third but, time and again, Valleys broke the line and had the opportunity to pump foot passes into the space in front of him. In truth, Valleys could have been six points up at half time had they taken their chances.
Hindsight is a mighty thing but if Ross had remained ultra-defensive, they might have managed to scrape through. However, the danger was the draw between Castlehaven and Clonakilty, which was looking likely for long stages of that second half. In that case Ross would have had to win by seven so they had to go for it a bit more. It didn’t work out either way. It’s not easy to get it right in what has turned out to be a tremendously competitive group stage.
Ross being beaten was the only major upset at the top level over the weekend with Clon’s disappointment at going down to a much-improved Castlehaven turning to relief and joy as the word spread in Bandon of a Valleys win and the reward of a quarter-final joust with Nemo. The margins are fine. Two West Cork teams move on from this group, and while Clon will plot to take down county champions Nemo, Castlehaven will be wary of a tricky tie against Ballincollig in their quarter-final. For Carbery Rangers, they are left on the outside looking in
