St James’ late run ends Boherbue JAFC hopes

St James’ 1-11 Boherbue 0-12

DISAPPOINTMENT for Boherbue on exiting the County JAFC after this quarter-final defeat to newcomers St. James at Kilmurry last Sunday. The West Cork champions discovered some late inspiration to turn this encounter on its head to shoot the closing four points and claima place in the penultimate hurdle.

It can be said that Kilmurry is not a happy hunting ground for Boherbue having incurred a defeat to Kilmacabea in a replay last season at the same stage. The latest outcome left Boherbue down on a day when a lack of finishing ultimately proved their undoing.

Perhaps, a turn up for the books, St. James operating over a run of weekends have come from no nowhere to land the 1st West Cork title at their first attempt and now stand a hour away from reaching a county final. Though Boherbue lost their shape during the latter stages, they had earlier squandered a number of goaling opportunities that ultimately contributed to their tale of woe.

Earlier, Boherbue had taken a grip on the proceedings through the strong play of Niall Murphy, Kevin Cremin and Billy O’Gorman. That allowed productive ball into attack for John Corkery (2) and Denis McCarthy to point for a 0-3 to 0-0 advantage.

Though player manager Alan O’Shea opened St. James account, that score was cancelled by a duplicate score from Adrian Murphy for the Duhallow champions. That presented St. James with a test of their composure yet they rose to the challenge in some style and registered a 1-2 tally in a productive flourish.

The all important goal surfaced from terrific work by James O’Driscoll to create the space for Frank Hayes to blast to the Boherbue net. In fairness, Boherbue showed no signs of panic, points from Corkery and Gerry O’Sullivan helped forced parity 1-4 to 0-7 at the interval.

Boherbue might well had netted a goal or two and on the restart, the sides were fairly well matched. Though not allowed to develop the free movements from the opening spell, Boherbue pressure yielded frees that Jerry O’Connor converted for his side hold a 0-12 to 1-7 advantage with 53 minutes elapsed. Far from finished, the St James response was persuasive, keeper Diarmuid O’Donovan nailed a ‘45’ as did O’Shea with a pointed free for parity.

That set up a rousing finish, substitute Sean O’Reilly landed a lead point for the Ardfield men. After Boherbue lost McCarthy to a second yellow card, they worked hard to rescue the situation yet the supporters from the mountain were cheering when Waterville native O’Shea kicked the insurance point shortly before the full time whistle.

ST JAMES: D O’Donovan 0-1’45; M McCarthy 0-1, E Feen, D Hayes; M McCarthy, K O’Leary, J O’Sullivan; P O’Sullivan, J O’Driscoll; A Hayes, J O’Sullivan 0-1, K O’Brien; F Hayes 1-1, M Evans 0-1 ‘45’, A O’Shea 0-5 (4f). Subs: T Nyhan for M McCarthy (33 inj), S O’Reilly 0-1 for M Evans (45).

BOHERBUE: K Murphy; J Daly, N Murphy, M Murphy; D Buckley, K Cremin, P Daly; A O’Connor, B O’Gorman; A Murphy 0-1, J Corkery 0-3, C J O’Sullivan; J O’Connor 0-5 (4f, 1 ‘45’), D McCarthy 0-2, G O’Sullivan 0-1. Subs: R Moynihan for C J O’Sullivan (29), D O’Connor for J Corkery (55), S Ahern for A O’Connor (60).

REFEREE: T Hayes (Éire Óg)