Inniscarra doom Kilworth in play-off
on the wall for Kilworth even at that early juncture, not least because of the dominance enjoyed by Inniscarra at the back where Conor Buckley was particularly commanding in the pivotal berth.
It’s a measure of Kilworth’s limitations in attack that Paudie Lynch bagged their entire first half tally, all but a point of which came from frees. Trailing by 2-8 to 0-4 at the interval, Kilworth made a promising start on the resumption, with Noel McNamara chipping in with a brace of points from play as they cut the gap to eight, 2-9 to 0-7, by the 35th minute.
They struggled to make further inroads on the deficit, however, as Inniscarra, aided by the unerring marksmanship of Aidan O’Mahony from placed balls, remained firmly in the driving seat for the rest of a lively encounter.
Kilworth never gave up the fight, and their hopes were still flickering after McNamara, from a free, and Will Condon shared a brace of points to leave them 2-13 to 0-12 adrift at the three-quarter stage.
It was obvious they needed a goal quickly in order to get back into serious contention, and it never looked like coming against an Inniscarra defence in which, besides Conor Buckley, Gerard Burke, John O’Callaghan and Kevin Burke stood-out.
John Casey regularly caught the eye for the winners as well at midfield, while the ever-menacing Dan O’Connell had able accomplices up front in Colm Casey, Aidan O’Mahony and Thomas O’Connor.
The bottom line was that Inniscarra held most of the aces, and they were by no means flattered by their eventual winning margin, given that O’Connell was denied two more goals in the second half by the heroics of Kilworth ‘keeper Kieran Walsh.
Paudie Lynch finally pulled a goal back for Kilworth in stoppage time, but that served merely to put a more respectable appearance on the scoreboard at the finish.
Kieran Lane, Nathan Byrne and Alan O’Connor at the back, and Paudie Lynch and Noel McNamara in attack achieved most overall for the out-gunned losers, who must now return to intermediate ranks from where they emerged in 2012.
Meanwhile, Inniscarra will head into 2016 with a new backroom team, as Ger Manley revealed that he and his co-mentors won’t be involved next year.
“We have been there for the past three years, reaching two semi finals, so I think the time has come for others to take the process a bit further. We have a great bunch of players, they are very committed, and it was unfortunate that things didn’t go as well as we’d hoped this year.
“We played well in our first two games against Mallow and Cloyne, but we didn’t see either of them out, and the hammering we took from Valley Rovers in Round 3 was just a freak,” he remarked
Manley felt the players’ attitude was right going into this match, so he wasn’t surprised that they got the job done in such impressive fashion.
“We were excellent tonight, but the most important thing was we were consistent over the hour, and I thought we were well over Kilworth, to be honest,” said the former Inniscarra and Cork star.