Kanturk to do battle with old rivals Castletownbere

Kanturk v Castletownbere Saturday, August 18 Ballyvourney 6.45pm

OLD foes clash here in a big contest for both sides to save their season after dramatic first round reversals for the two parties. Remarkably, the pair looked to had done enough from competitive tests only to be caught at the finishing line.

Kanturk were left to ponder on how it might had been after conceding a sucker punch injury time goal to Nemo Rangers. After failing to impress during the opening 30 minutes, Premier debutants Kanturk improved and fought their way back to parity, before taking a two point lead in added time only to forfeit their handle on the proceedings.

After trailing by five points at the break, Aidan Walsh settled some Kanturk nerves inside 90 seconds of the restart with a long range point before Mark Healy Lorcán McLoughlin and the Walshes pushed the Duhallow side ahead as the clock counted down.

Its natural to Nemo of never giving up and duly exposing the Kanturk defensive frailties with a last ditch winner.

Castleltownbere had looked to done enough to overcome St Vincents in Round 1 when edging ahead entering the closing stages, but the concession of three points without reply tilted the destination of the spoils away from the Beara outfit.

All through the hour, Castletownbere took the game to their opponents , encouraged by the play of Dave Fenton and Andrew O’Sullivan in the centre. And up front, Cork senior pannelist Gary Murphy impressed with a six point tally to his credit.

However, Castle’ did make life difficult for themselves to the extent that their efforts to slow down the game in their own half was clumsey at times and they were made to pay the penalty on the late concession of scores.

Over the summer, both sides have disappointed in their respective leagues and Kanturk’s cause is unhelped by hurling involvement and a number of injuries picked ahead of their County SHC defeat by Bishopstown only six days before this football assignment.

Still by virtue of a terrific campaign last season that culminated on clinching county IFC accolades, Kanturk are well capable of getting the show back on track to land the spoils from what will be a competitive encounter.

Verdict: Kanturk