Ballinacourty beat 14 man Clashmore to book semi-final spot

Ballinacourty are through to this year’s County Senior Football Championship semi-finals and a meeting with neighbours Stradbally after they recorded a five point win over Clashmore in the last of this year’s quarter finals at Fraher Field on Sunday evening.

Clashmore finished this game with fourteen men after Padi O’Rourke received his marching orders on 44 minutes by referee Tommy O’Sullivan.

The sending off was an unusual one in that the Clashmore club man received a card of every colour in this game.

He was booked earlier in the game and received a yellow card, and then midway through the second half was issued with a black card which was followed with a red which meant that he could not be replaced with someone from the bench as would have happened if he had not received an earlier yellow.

The first quarter of this game was an evenly balanced contest.

Michael O’Halloran opened the scoring for Ballinacourty only for his first cousin Brian to level matters from a free on seven minutes.

Gary Hurney put Ballinacourty back in front a minute later but by the 12 minute Clashmore had taken the lead, first drawing level through Padi O’Rourke followed by a Brian O’Halloran free.

This was as good as it got for the Still Men however and in the second quarter Ballinacourty did much of the spadework to carve out this win.

Between the 15 and 25 minutes they hit nine points in a row which helped then to a 0-11 to 0-3 lead at the break.

Patrick Hurney got the ball rolling with a brace. Michael Maher gave his side a two point lead on 18 minutes and within seconds, Mark Ferncombe gave his side a double score lead.

Michael O’Halloran and Mark Ferncombe landed points before Patrick Hurney gave Ballinacourty a 0-9 to 0-3 lead with 23 minutes played.

Sean O’Hare and Michael O’Halloran then brought their sides tally to 11 for the evening with points on 24 and 25 minutes.

The second half was nowhere near as exciting to watch as the first, especially for the neutrals in the crowd.

Patrick Hurney and Brian O’Halloran swapped early points before Gary Hurney put over a free on 40 minutes to give his side a 0-13 to 0-4 lead.

Sean Fleming who had entered the game as a sub on 33 minutes gave his side a massive boost on 42 minutes when he finished a well worked movement down the bank side of the field towards the country goal to the net.

But the goal as sometimes happens failed to ignite Clashmore. Any boost they got out of it were dashed two minutes later when Padi O’Rourke was sent off.

Patrick Hurney and Brian O’Halloran swapped scores on 47 and 29 minutes and when Neil Montgomery pointed on 53 minutes there was no disputing what the outcome of this game was going to be.

Cillian O’Keeffe and Declan Allen did hit late points for Clashmore in this game, but they were mere consolation scores as it was goals they needed and with a man less to help try and get it against a strong Ballinacourty side, if they had come they were going to be hard won.

Ballinacourty: Stephen Enright; Conor McCarthy, Brian Looby, John Elstead; Shane Briggs, David Collins, Richie Foley; Sean O’Hare, Conor Prunty; Michael Maher, Patrick Hurney, Mark Ferncombe; Shane O’Donovan, Gary Hurney, Michael O’Halloran. Subs: Neil Montgomery for Mark Ferncombe (HT), John Hurney for Shane O’Donovan (50), Evan Collins for Michael O’Halloran (51), Maurice Power for John Elstead (57), Patrick Lynch for Shane Briggs (58),

Scorers: Patrick Hurney 0-5 (3f), Michael O’Halloran 0-3, Gary Hurney, Mark Ferncombe 0-2 each, Michael Maher, Sean O’Hare, Neil Montgomery 0-1 each.

Clashmore: Darragh Curran; Shane Russell, Ciaran Bourke, Sean O’Connor; Sean Bourke, Tadhg Bourke, Aidan Trihy; Jason Seaward, Declan Allen; Edmond O’Halloran, Brian O’Halloran, Cillian O’Keeffe; Paddy Prendergast, Padi O’Rourke, Paul O’Connor. Subs: Kieran Connery for Shane Russell (30+2), Sean Fleming for Paddy Prendergast (33),

Scorers: Brian O’Halloran 0-4 (3f), Sean Fleming 1-0, Padi O’Rourke, Cillain O’Keeffe, Declan Allen 0-1 each.

Referee: Tommy O’Sullivan