Ballygarvan 1-12
Liscarroll/Churchtown Gaels 0-8
JJ HURLEY REPORTS
BALLYGARVAN pushed past a brave Liscarroll/Churchtown Gaels challenge in the McCarthy Insurance Junior A county football quarter-final in Blarney on Sunday.
The difference over the hour was the ability of the South East champions to take their chances as the Avondhu representatives were guilty of some wayward shooting.
It was Ballygarvan’s Ray O’Halloran who opened the scoring on six minutes thanks to some lively exchanges with Evan O’Connor.
O'Connor again proved to be the provider on 11 minutes as he again found O’Halloran and duly obliged.
Gaels, who had the lion's share of possession during this period, but couldn’t make it count, including forcing Gary White into a fantastic save. However, Seamie O’ Callaghan did open his side’s account but not before Ballygarvan had a third point from Sean Brady
With the sides separated by 0-4 to 0-1 on 20 minutes thanks to an O’Connor point, Gaels almost prized open their opponent’s defence as Oier O’Callaghan had a goal bound shot blocked.
Two points from the Avondhu pairing of Padraig O’Shea and Sean Delee to a Daniel Mackey white flag left the score at 0-5 to 0-4 at the interval.
The opening minutes of the second half saw Ballygarvan taking control of this game as they hit four unanswered points from O’Connor, Mackey, O’Halloran and Niall Dowd.
Gaels, to their credit, had a big ask in playing for the hour, having only lifted their divisional title the previous Wednesday night.
While Sean Killeen pulled a point back, O’ Halloran and O’Conor pushed on with a point each as they stretched their lead to 0-11 to 0-5 on 44 minutes However, when Dylan O’Connor linked up with his brother Evan on 51 minutes and he buried the football to the Avondhu side’s net the game was up.
To be fair they managed to outscore Ballygarvan by 2 to 1 for the closing minutes, but fittingly it was O'Halloran who claimed the final point and they now face Castlemartyr in the county semi-final.
Scorers
Ballygarvan: E O’Connor (f) 1-3 R O’Halloran 0-5, D Mackey 0-2, S Brady, N Dowd 0-1 each.
Liscarroll/Churchtown Gaels: P O’Shea 0-4 (2f), Colin O’Brien, S Delee, S O’Callaghan, S Kileen 0-1 each.
Ballygarvan: G White; P Ryan, R O’Leary, Z Davidson; S Brady, S O’Donovan, M O’Mahony; J Fenton, C O’Regan; E O’Connor, P O’Halloran, D O’Mahony; D Mackey, R O’ Halloran, N Dowd.
Subs: D O’Connor for N Dowd (35), Calium Mackey for D O’Mahony (45), M Cussen for D Mackey(48), Connor Mackey for Z Davidson.
Liscarroll/Churchtown Gaels: R Lehane, O Hudner, J Hudner, M Thomson; V Daly, S O’Callaghan, S Killeen; K Daly, C O’Brien; E Coleman, S Delee, O O’Callaghan; E Barrett, P O’Shea, T Doyle.
Subs: B Fitzpatrick for E Colman (35), J Quinn and S Coleman for E Barrett and T Doyle (45), T Morrissey for S Delee (50), E Evans for K Daly (55).
Referee: Brendan Barry-Murphy (Aghabullogue).
