SKIBBEREEN Community School’s defeat of CSN Bishopstown has set up an all-West Cork showdown with Hamilton High School Bandon for a place in the knockout stages of the Corn Uí Mhuiri.
The Skibbereen school came out on top last week against Bishopstown by a solitary point, 0-8 to 1-4. Ilen Rovers’ Sean Connolly top scored for Skibbereen, grabbing 0-5, with club-mate Kevin O’Driscoll (0-1) and Castlehaven’s Danny O’Donovan (0-2) helping them get over the line and set up a winner-takes-all matchup this Friday, venue TBC.
Skibbereen coach Tony Harrington spoke of the importance of the result having had to bounce back from a round one defeat to Tralee.
‘Realistically we were under a bit of pressure after our first game against Tralee. Our tactics and discipline kind of let us down a small bit but against Bishopstown our tackling was very good as well as our shot selection so it was a huge improvement from the first day out,’ explained Harrington.
Looking ahead to the clash with Hammies, Harrington expects a very close game with the key to success lying with limiting the Bandon forward’s chances in front of goal.
‘We’re definitely expecting a tough game against the Hammies. They’re already after beating Bishopstown as well so we know it’ll be a challenge. They have a few extremely quick forwards so we will have to try and stop the ball from getting in there first of all, and then try to limit their impact up top as much as possible,’ Harrington said.
The make-up of this Skibb school team includes players from big footballing strongholds around West Cork.
‘The team is mainly made up of lads from Castlehaven, Caheragh, Ilen, and Skibbereen so it’s those four clubs that are making up the majority of the team. They’re all good footballing clubs so there’s a lot of quality in the team,’ said Harrington, who stressed the importance of their final group game.
‘Realistically, your expectation is to try and win it out but you just have to take it game by game and the next game is do or die for us. If we lose we are out, so we have to win, we have no other choice but to win.’
