Senior Football Championship v Kiskeam

Ballincollig 0-17 Kiskeam 1-9 

BALLINCOLLIG will face Douglas in a mouth-watering quarter-final of this season’s Cork SFC after the Muskerry men battled hard to see off Kiskeam in Ballyclough.

In blistering sunshine and in front of an impressive crowd at the north Cork venue the boys in green racked up a creditable 17 points. However thanks to some fine stops from Kiskeam keeper Anthony Casey and some poor finishing from the victors Ballincollig were unable to add goals when the opportunities arrived.

Led up front by Cian Dorgan, Ballincollig looked a threat throughout as Dorgan’s nine-point haul, along with his colleagues, Darren Murphy (five) and Garry Comerford (two) kept Kiskeam’s defenders under pressure throughout.

Ballincollig also had plenty of class in other areas of the pitch with Sean Kiely and Peter O’Neill impressing in the middle third while Colm O’Connell at centre-back and Cian Kiely on the wing also showed their wares.

Ballincollig's Cian Kiely takes on Kiskeam's Michael Casey. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

For Kiskeam, Sean O’Sullivan at centre-forward was impressive with Gene Casey at full-forward and Tomás Dennehy in the middle well capable of living with the pace set by Collig.

Adrian Carroll was busy all game in wing forward and was a genuine threat to Ballincollig from the first to the final minute.

Ballincollig dominated the opening 10 minutes in both the possession and scoring stakes with a triple (two from play and one free) from Dorgan.

The North Cork side did manage to trouble the scoreboard on 10 minutes, with a free from wing forward Carroll, but the men in black were struggling to keep pace.

Casey kept Kiskeam in touch with a brilliant save from Dorgan but a tasty score from Comerford pushed Collig back into a three-point lead as the game entered the second quarter.

Every team is likely to have some period of dominance and this one was no different as Kiskeam grabbed hold of the fixture from the 19th to the 25th minutes outscoring their opponents by 1-3 to no score.

Firstly, Sean O’Sullivan slotted over to cut the gap to two before Comerford hit the Kiskeam upright, which was a real let off for the Duhallow men. They made the most of their good fortune as a minute later Ballincollig’s net minder Jack Gibbons was taking the ball from his own net after a brilliant finish from Michael Herlihy.

Another point followed from Gene Casey and after holding up to 80% of the possession, Ballincollig found themselves trailing by three, 1-4 to 0-4.

Ballincollig rallied and scores from Dorgan and Herlihy brought them back to within one as the sides headed for the dressing rooms: 1-5 to 0-7.

Ballincollig needed a good start if they were to see off a resilient Kiskeam and they got just what the needed thanks to three quick points from Murphy, reclaiming the lead, which they wouldn’t lose again.

Scores from Dorgan, Murphy and Sean Kiely pushed Ballincollig clear in the closing stages and despite Kiskeam sticking to their task they just didn’t have the attackers on the day to pull this one from the fire.

Douglas await a fired up Ballincollig while for Kiskeam its back to the drawing board for another year.

Scorers for Ballincollig: C Dorgan 0-9 (0-2 f); D Murphy 0-5; G Comerford 0-2 (0-1 f); S Kiely 0-1.

BALLINCOLLIG: J Gibbons; N Galvin, L Jennings, K Coleman; K Browne, C O’Connell, C Kiely; S Kiely, P O’Neill; JP Murphy, P Kelly, C Moore; G Comerford, C Dorgan, D Murphy. 

Subs: L Fahy for K Browne (half time), R Noonan for C Moore (58), S O’Neill for K Coleman (61 bc).