Kanturk rally to maintain status

brilliantly thwarted at least six goal chances.

Those heroics galvanized Tracton who rallied either side of the interval to whittle away at the deficit and a 51st minute goal leapfrogged the Carrigdhoun boys into the lead.

Facing a real examination, Kanturk came up with the answers to reassert themselves to finish strongly to secure a deserved victory.

Having endured defeats to Cloyne and Kilwoth in the previous rounds, Kanturk offered a more gutsy means on putting their shoulder to the wheel and grinding out a positive result.

Kanturk dominated the opening exchanges to a low key start and availed of lead points to Lorcán McLoughlin, Aidan Walsh and Lorcan O’Neill. Though Tracton opened their account, Still the Kanturk response was impressive on asserting themselves in the key positions.

Key to the Kanturk upperhand was the dominance of Eoghan O’Connor, Darren Browne and O’Neill in defence with Mark Healy and McLoughlin to the fore in the centre. The accuracy of Donnacha Kenneally and Paul Walsh added to the Kanturk tally.

However Tracton custodian Lyons elevated from substitute on the match programme to a starting position at throw in time earned his spurs on repeatedly repulsing the Kanturk attack with superb saves and blocks from James Fitzpatrick, Cian Clernon and Ian Walsh.

A run of super saves from Lyons spurned on his colleagues with the reliable Ronan Walsh pointing from all angles to cut the arrears 0-9 to 0-6 at the interval. Indeed Tracton picked up where they let off on creating more openings to force parity.

Kanturk appeared good enough to weather the offensive, Kenneally, Ian Walsh and Fitzpatrick securing points. However Tracton are a side that refuse to lie down too easily and a terrific response spoke positively of their desire.

Forcing parity, Kanturk substitute Liam O’Keeffe nosed his side ahead only for Tracton to mount a sprightly revival culminating on a lead goal in the 51st minute, a Walsh free fell into the dangerzone for David O’Callaghan to fire home a cracking goal and a shock lead at 1-14 to 0-15.

As the excitement mounted, Kanturk had to respond and they did so with four consecutive points from Dan O’Donoghue, McLoughlin, John Browne and O’Neill. Again Tracton managed to summon up a reply, Walsh pointed to cut the deficit to the minimum.

The game was nicely set up for a pulsating finish and possible extra time but when the pressure came on, Kanturk responded best with closing points from McLoughlin and O’Keeffe.