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WITH embarrassing ease, goal-hungry Cloyne ruthlessly
brushed aside the challenge of Sarsfields in the Evening Echo Cork County SHC
quarter-final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh last night.
In what was possibly
the most one-sided contest in the competition in recent times, Cloyne rode
roughshod over their hapless opponents and thus maintained their marvellous
consistency by qualifying for their third successive semi-final appearance.
A well chastened
Sarsfields team had no answer to the vastly superior physical strength and
hurling expertise of their East Cork rivals, and with the concession of four
goals in the first-half they were left with an Everest to climb - one they never
remotely looked like scaling.
This was a one-horse
race if ever there was one, after Cloyne hit the ground running with two
early points from Donal O’Sullivan and his brother Pádraig, who converted a
free. Although Sars clawed their way back when Cork senior Kieran Murphy got
his name on the scoresheet in the sixth minute it became clearer with every
passing moment that this was one occasion Sarsfields were not going to enjoy.
And, as events transpired, once Conor Cusack opened the floodgates with a
goal, after being set up by Pádraig O’Sullivan in the 10th minute, it turned
out to be a real night of disaster for the famous Riverstown club.
Three minutes after Cusack’s opening strike, Sars received a great
opportunity of hauling themselves back into contention when they were awarded
a penalty after full-forward Mick Cussen was pulled down within the square.
Sadly for Sars, Pat Ryan’s conversion attempt went over for a point and there
and then this game ended as a meaningful contest.
Sars failed to score again for the remainder of the first half while, with
the rain cascading down in monsoon-like fashion, Cloyne went from strength to
strength as their totally outclassed and disillusioned opponents fell badly
by the wayside.
Indeed, try as they might, Sars could make no impression on the total
superiority enjoyed by Cloyne in all facets of play. Receiving from Philip
Cahill, wing-forward Colm O’Sullivan hit Cloyne’s second goal in the 20th
minute and two more just before half-time from Conor Cusack and his brother
Victor set the funeral march in train for Sarsfields.
Leading 4-4 to 0-2 at half-time and in control, Cloyne stretched their lead
to 16 points after the resumption, before Sars, with three scores in rapid
succession from Pat Ryan, Neil O’Sullivan and John Murphy, managed for a
brief period to win some respectability.
With Maurice Cahill rarely giving Kieran Murphy a look-in, Diarmuid
O’Sullivan, excelling at right half back, after being yellow-carded in the
opening minute, and Donal O’Sullivan and Michael Naughton in control at
midfield, Cloyne wrote Sars’ obituary in the most telling manner imaginable.
Following Sars’ brief resurgence, Philip Cahill scored a magnificent
individual goal - Cloyne’s fifth in the 47th minute - and with the Sars
defence at sixes and sevens and beaten to a pulp by a most imaginative and
masterful Cloyne forward sextet, the losers can consider themselves fortunate
that the margin of defeat did not assume even greater proportions.
The impressive Colm O’Sullivan scored Cloyne’s sixth goal a minute from the
end of normal time and brought the curtain gloriously down on his side’s
runaway 19-points triumph.
Scorers: Cloyne: C. O’Sullivan 2-2, C. Cusack 2-1, V.
Cusack, P. Cahill 1-0 each, P. O’Sullivan 0-2 (both frees), Donal O’Sullivan,
J. Nyhan, J. Cotter, Diarmuid O’Sullivan 0-1 each. Sarsfields: P. Ryan 0-2
(0-1 free), K. Murphy, T. Óg Murphy, N. O’Sullivan, P. O’Flynn, M. Cussen, J.
Murphy (free) 0-1 each.
CLOYNE: D. Óg Cusack; E. O’Sullivan, K. Cronin, D.
Motherway; Diarmuid O’Sullivan, M. Cahill, M. Naughton; Donal O’Sullivan,
John Cotter; C. O’Sullivan, V. Cusack, I. Quinlan; P. O’Sullivan, P. Cahill,
C. Cusack.
Subs: S. Motherway for Donal O’Sullivan, L. O’Driscoll for
V. Cusack, D. Ring for P. Cahill, A. O’Brien for Cotter, B. Fleming for D.
Motherway.
SARSFIELDS: P. Gahan; T. Feeney, P. Roche, J. Barry; R.
Duggan, R. Ryan, B. McCarthy; P. Ryan, T. Óg Murphy; G. O’Loughlin, K.
Murphy, N. O’Sullivan; J. Murphy, M. Cussen, C. Duggan.
Subs: J. O’Connor for Duggan, P. O’Flynn for O’Sullivan.
Referee: D. Kirwan (Éire Óg).
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