Semi with Skibb awaits quality Éire Óg
Éire Óg 3-12 St Michaels 0-4
LAST year’s Premier IFC champions Éire Óg are just two games away from reaching the top tier of Cork football after a statement victory over St Michael’s at Ballyanly on Sunday.
Ten and a half months ago, the Ovens side prevailed by 0-14 to 0-12 against Michael’s, who were experiencing defeat for the third year in a row in the decider and the fourth time in five years. A similarly close encounter would have been expected but a goal just before half-time by Colm O’Callaghan put Éire Óg into a 1-5 to 0-2 interval lead and they drove on in the second half to triumph in impressive fashion.
A semi-final clash with O’Donovan Rossa is the prize and, while manager Harry O’Reilly knows that his team won’t be able to afford eight first-half wides again, he was delighted with the outcome.
“We didn’t expect to win by 17 points, there’s never anything in it between us and Michaels,” he said.
“We probably had everyone available to us and they had a few injuries, which put them on the back foot a little bit. We missed an awful lot of chances in the first half, but we started converting them in the second half.
They’re good footballers and it was always going to come.
“This pitch has a bit of a hill [towards rugby club] and it’s the harder one to score into. I said at half-time that we were playing into the scoring goal and thankfully it turned out that way.”
Éire Óg’s two second-half goals were scored by Kevin Hallissey, who was held in reserve as he returned from injury, with Cork star Ciarán Sheehan in a similar situation. O’Reilly was all too aware of the luxury available to him.
“They were injured for a couple of weeks and they came back during the week,” he said.
“To bring on lads of that stature is unbelievable. They’ve been there and done it, they’ve played in All-Ireland finals and everything. It’s brilliant to have
them.”
Having begun their campaign with a win over Bantry Blues in the group stage, Éire Óg then lost to Mallow, putting them under pressure ahead of the final match against Kiskeam. Coming through such a game with a win gave them a platform on which to build against Michael’s.
“We felt we didn’t play at all against Mallow,” O’Reilly said, “we gave away possession very cheaply.
“We had a great performance against Kiskeam, that was a really hard game going into it and they’re a seasoned senior team and we had to win by three points, which made it even more difficult. We won it comfortably, even though there was a bit of controversy with a couple of the goals. Thankfully there was no controversy today!”
While the sides were level at 0-2 each after Tadgh Deasy’s equaliser for Michael’s, they wouldn’t score again until late in the third quarter, with Éire Óg building a considerable lead in between. That said, they did need good saves from Chris Kelly in the first half to deny Mark O’Keeffe and Eric Hegarty.
Poor shooting prevented them from moving further ahead, but they led by 0-5 to 0-2, captain Daniel Goulding leading the way, when Brian Hurley set O’Callaghan up for the goal on 27 minutes and they pushed on after the restart, with Ronan O’Toole and Jack Murphy dominant at midfield.
It was 1-7 to 0-3 at the water break, Michael’s sub Andy O’Connell having ended their drought, and while he scored again on the resumption, Goulding’s sixth point was followed by their second goal, Goulding setting up Hallissey.
Michael’s did almost conjure an immediate response but Kelly saved once more from Deasy – Goulding was there on his own goal-line to fully clear the danger – and Éire Óg made the game safe as O’Callaghan laid on another goal for Hallissey. Goulding (three) and sub Jerome Kelleher added points to give them a comfortable win in the end, with O’Reilly looking forward to facing the Skibb challenge in the last four.
“They’re coming down from the top level,” he said, “and they’ve been a big team over the years, a good history behind them and everything. We think