Cork IFC Final Fermoy 0-7 Mayfield 0-7
2015-10-26 00:01:00
Fermoy 0-7 Mayfield 0-7 (Cork IFC Final): Mayfield live to fight another day. The more it went on, the more you thought it had to be some sort of rope-a-dope tactic.
Fermoy â the favourites, the front-runners, the team that racked up 5-11 against the same opposition last year â playing the second-half of a county final in their own half.
By Stephen Barry in Páirc Uà Rinn
One score, at any stage of that second-half, wouldâve won them the game, and the Championship.
One score in those 32 minutes wouldâve been the knock-out blow that justified a yearâs worth of training. But it never came.
Mayfield, who trailed 0-7 to 0-2 at half-time, couldnât seem to close that gap by so much as a point, leaving an exasperated crowd to watch a stalemate. However, Mayfield didnât punch themselves out and two excellent Paul Condon points in the 51st minute burst the dam and put Mayfield, remarkably, within one score.
Nicky Kelly missed a goal chance (the only one created by either side) to level the game but a David OâNeill point and two Condon frees, the latter coming after Darragh OâCarroll was unlucky to handle the ball on the ground in the final minute of stoppage time, rescued a draw.
Shane OâDonovan had a chance to produce an even later winner but a tough shot drifted well wide.
It was a draw that left everyone with something.
âI think everyone is happy to fight another day,â said Mayfield manager Mick Hannon â a sentiment echoed by his Fermoy counterpart, Noel Crowley, who was keen to accentuate the positives: âAs you can see from the smile on my face, weâre in a county final and weâll prepare next week for that.â
Both sides will have similar emphases in training too, after a game that featured some stellar defence but an evenly split total of 26 wides and a whole lot of misplaced passes.
However Crowley wonât be ripping up the playbook after the second-half collapse: âI donât think thereâs too much to work on â it just didnât go our way in the second-half. What we did in the first half was very positive and weâll just reiterate that what weâve been doing all year got us here in the first place, and weâre still here.
âThey might enjoy tonight, weâll go back up to the training pitch on Tuesday night and I might put in an email after this just to change my own holidays. But weâll prepare as we prepared last week and we wonât do anything too strenuous.â
Hannon will also debrief the troops on Tuesday with a video session.
âWe felt at half-time we hadnât done ourselves justice and we really hadnât played any football,â said the Mayfield boss in his initial analysis. âThe lads were very calm, theyâre a mature bunch and the intention was to go out at the start of the second-half and get a couple of scores. But looking up at the clock with 10 minutes to go we still hadnât scored â there wasnât any score for either team.
âWhereas we didnât have the bench last year, we had the bench this year to bring on when things werenât going in our favour. I think our fellows know thereâs an extra 25 or 30% in them and that if we can produce that the next day, weâd be looking forward to a good game.â
Few couldâve foreseen such a wasteful draw, given last yearâs meeting of these two ended in a seven-goal thriller.
Fermoy had the wind and a stream of chances in the first half on Saturday. Ruairi OâHagan was their main-man in the inside line and his ability to create and kick scores stood out among 10 wides. Mayfield centre-back Kieran Brosnan provided the only resistance from play as the northsiders went in five behind.
The subsequent 20 minutes can best be described in few words: two yellow cards, two shots dropped short, seven wides and little action. However the final 10 snapped the players out of their stupor, with Mayfield extending their Championship odyssey by another 60 minutes.
Scorers for Fermoy: R OâHagan (0-5, 2 frees); T Clancy, P de Roiste (0-1 each).
Scorers for Mayfield: P Condon (0-5, 3 frees, 1 45); K Brosnan, D OâNeill (0-1 each).
FERMOY: L Coleman; J Pyne, S Shanahan, A Baragry; P Clancy, B OâSullivan, P Murphy; T Clancy, K Dorgan; R OâCallaghan, D OâCarroll, M Brennan; P de Roiste, R OâHagan, K Morrison.
Subs: J Daly for P Clancy (inj, 33), A OâConnor for Brennan (40), S Aherne for Dorgan (54).
MAYFIELD: E Bond; S OâSullivan, T Boyd, P Fitzgerald; D OâNeill, K Brosnan, S Kelly; S OâDonovan, S Fitzgerald; N Kelly, D Malone, D Lucey; D Hayes, P Condon, S Hackett.
Subs: R Scannell for Hackett (35), T Lotty for Lucey (38), Lucey for Hayes (49), B Hegarty for Malone (59).
Referee: J Ryan (Macroom).
Irish Examiner