St. Nicks vs O'Donovan Rossa

Report from The Examiner 21st January 2002:

"Donovan Rossa 1:10 St Nicholas 1:8. O'Donovan Rossa completed the Cork County Premier minor football double at the Glen Field yesterday, edging out St Nicholas after a super league decider. Considering both sides had only won their semi-final contests hours earlier, with Rossas beating Kildorrery 4-9 to 1-4 and Nicks proving too good for Ballincollig 4-14 to 0-7, both sides served up some terrific stuff with cramp hitting tired limbs after a super hour's football. No question but Nicks had their chances to win the game but Rossas never say die attitude carried them through. Rossas opened in splendid fashion. , Dara O'Regan pointed a free after only two minutes and three minutes 'later Rory O'Donovan had a second after O'Regan's Free came back off the upright. When Paddy Nealon added a third in the eighth minute Skibb, with half-backs Niall McCarthy and Dermot O'Sullivan in splendid form and midfielder Rob Long running the show looked in total control, their short passing game proving so effective. Eoghan Geaney, who had a superb match, opened St Nicholas' account in the 11th minute and finding a new urgency they began to upset Rossas with long deliveries from the half back line. Geaney had a second Nick's PO in the 20th minute, his shot brilliantly tipped over the bar by James McCarthy, and two minutes later they were denied another goal when Tim Dennehy set up David Busteed only for his shot to go agonisingly over the bar and the sides were level. Then it all came right for Nicks in the 23rd minute when wing forward Kevin O'Herlihy started and finished a move after a great ball from Conor O'Keeffe for a goal that earned St Nicks a l-4 to 0-5 interval lead. Nicks were straight into the action on the restart, with Donal Cronin stretching their lead. But with Shane Breen at last beginning to buzz, after a quiet first-half Long moving to full-forward there was enough spirit in Skibb's play to keep up the fight. Despite some stern play from Nick's full back Donal Óg O'Donovan, Breen kicked two superb points and with James McCarthy making another great save from Busteed in the 40th minute there was just (a point between the sides entering the final quarter, 1-7 to 0-9, with Geaney hitting a real beauty for the Nicks. In a tremendous final quarter Skibb went all out to complete the double. Nealon just failed to get on the end of Long s delivery in the 46th minute and two minutes later Skibb keeper McCarthy made another tremendous save from Gavin Moylan as play swung from end to end. Then came the goal that won the contest for Rossa in the 49th minute when fine play between Long and Nealon set up Liam Hazel and he made no mistake to fire Skibb in front again. Try as they might, Nick's could not breech the Skibb defence in the final minutes and it was the west Cork boys experience which saw them through. Scorers for O'Donovan Rossa: L. Hazel 1-0, D. O'Regan (1)-2 frees) S. Breen 0-3 each, P. Kearney 0-2, R. O'Donovan P. Nealon 0-1 each. St. Nicholas: E. Geaney 0-5 (0-1 free), K. O'Herlihy 1-0, D. Busteed 0-2, D, Cronin 0-1. O'DONOVAN ROSSA: J. McCarthy; J. T. Walsh, K. Cotter, G. Keohane, N. McCarthy; D. O'Sullivan, E. Hodnett; P. Nealon R. Long; S. Breen, 1. Hazel, R. O'Donovan; P. Kearney, D. O'Regan, D. McCarthy. Subs: A. Tanner for Keohane, B. Hamilton for D. McCarthy, and D. O'Donovan for Walsh. ST. NICHOLAS: E. Hourihane; N. Horgan, D. Og O'Donovan, B. Murphy; C. O'Keeffe, D. Cunningham, T Dennehy; L. Leahy, S. O'Donoghue; K. O'Herlihy, D. Busteed, G. Moylan; D. Cronin, D. Goggin, E. Geaney. Subs: D. Dorris for O'Herlihy, E. O'Sullivan for Murphy. Referee: D. Lenihan (Nemo Rangers)."