'It does mean everything' - second time round, Lisgoold have the quality
Final Páirc Supervalu Cork Picture: Liam Own Erins After Defeating At Chaoimh O'hare Uí I'a'hc And Celebrate O'shea Lisgoold Replay Op In Superstores The Eddie Captain Players Co
As ever, the sequel did not quite match up to the original in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, but that won’t be bothering anybody in Lisgoold when they awaken on Monday morning as the Co-op Superstores Cork intermediate A champions for 2024. The game did not lack for quality though, and when all was said and done, Lisgoold had that bit more than an Erin’s Own side that left all of themselves out there, as they always do.
Speaking of quality, it was Lisgoold’s Cork starlet, Diarmuid Healy, who helped them turn this game in their favour. They trailed by 0-9 to 0-8 at the interval before going on to score the opening six points of the second half to put themselves in control. Healy contributed three of them as he punched hold after hole in the Erin’s Own rearguard. From there, it was all about goals.
Erin’s Own landed the first when Dara Twomey hit the net after good work from Tiernan Connell but two minutes later, Liam O’Shea scored a goal of individual brilliance after dancing through to the Erin’s Own defence to put Lisgoold 1-14 to 1-10 in front going into the final quarter. With seven minutes to go Erin’s Own made their move when Stephen Horgan pulled the ball to the net after being teed up by John Kavanagh. That left them 1-15 to 2-11 in arrears and from there, they would have fancied themselves.
O’Shea and Horgan traded points, before Cathal Hickey intervened to decide the affair. James O’Driscoll claimed a high delivery from the outstanding Kieran Cashman before popping the ball to Hickey who buried it. Twomey responded with a point, but Hickey had another score left in him as Lisgoold will be operating on a higher plane next season, something that their manager, Mossie O’Connell, was thrilled to with.
“It does mean everything. A couple of years ago, when I was coming towards the end of my time when we won the Intermediate ‘A’ here against Kilbrittain, I was manager that time, but I remember meeting Duds’ Dad, Brendan Healy, and he said to me the aim over the next couple of years is to get to Premier Intermediate. We’re there now, what’ll happen next year? I don’t know! But we’re in the group of 12 next year anyway.
“We’ve a massive underage structure coming through. I have to credit all the lads that have put in, not all the effort now, but over the past ten or fifteen years to have the players that we have now. I can’t mention them all, but it’s a combined effort by everyone.”
The sides were level five times inside the opening quarter before a pair of points from the excellent Alan Bowen opened a two-point gap in the game for the first time. Erin’s Own held that advantage all the way to the interval, even if Lisgoold outscored them by 0-3 to 0-2 from there to the break.
Then came their burst that put them in control before Hickey wrote his name into the folklore.
C Hickey and L O’Shea (0-1 free) (1-2 each), D Healy and J Cashman (frees) (0-4 each), K Cashman and M Hegarty (0-2 each), I Walsh and J O’Driscoll (0-1 each).
A Bowen (0-7, 0-6 frees), D Twomey and S Horgan (1-1 each), I O’Mahony, T Connell, C Lenihan and Ó O’Regan (0-1 each).
C Cronin; J Hegarty, C Cashman, C Scannell; K Cashman, J Cronin, C Healy; J Cashman, M Hegarty; D Healy, L O’Shea (c), L Walsh; C Hallahan, I Walsh, J O’Driscoll.
C Hickey for Hallahan (h/t), T Savage for O’Driscoll (blood (58 – 60).
T Dillon; B Nolan, P Fitzgerald, A Moynihan; D Twomey, I O Mahony (c), S Cronin; C Coakley, G O’Mahony; R Blackton, A Bowen, T Connell; C Lenihan, K Murphy, Ó O’Regan.
J Kavanagh for Blackton (37), S Horgan for Connell (44), A O’Sullivan for Coakley (51), J McMahon for Lenihan (57).
Aidan Hyland (Kilworth).