\n Valley Rovers 0-28 Carrigaline 0-17\n <\/p>\n
Valleys Rovers overpowered Carrigdhoun rivals Carrigaline in the opening round of the Co-op Superstores Cork Premier IHC at Riverstick on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
A Group 3 encounter that produced 45 scores saw Valleys deservedly come out on top in an, at times, one-sided contest. Chris O\u2019Leary\u2019s 13-point haul along with an excellent showing from the half-back line of Ciar\u00e1n O\u2019Shea, Eoin Guinane and William Hurley ensured Rovers got off the mark. Midfielders Shane Ryan and Matthew Woods also impressed.<\/p>\n
Carrigaline were hugely disappointed with the outcome and their overall performance. Brian Kelleher\u2019s free-taking kept them in touch but eleven wides and an inability to stop a constant flow of Valley attacks proved critical.<\/p>\n
Valley\u2019s had nine different scorers throughout the hour. This satisfying win represented a big step towards emerging from Group 3 ahead of upcoming Kilworth and Ballymartle fixtures.<\/p>\n
Both clubs reached the knockout stages of last year\u2019s Premier IHC. Going at least one better than their 2025 quarter-final exits required a positive start.<\/p>\n
It was Rovers who began brighter and dominated the opening 15 minutes. Despite playing into a variable wind, Donnacha O\u2019Connell was denied an early goal by Carrigaline goalkeeper Robert Foster\u2019s quick reflexes.<\/p>\n
Chris O\u2019Leary got Valley\u2019s motoring with a point and free before a poor puck-out was punished by Eoghan Crowley to edge Rovers three clear.<\/p>\n
Unable to make any headway against their opponents\u2019 well-drilled defence, Carrigaline fell five behind when Shane Ryan and Joe Twohig raised consecutive white flags.<\/p>\n
Ciar\u00e1n Kearney got Carrigaline on the board after 12 minutes but a fine Jack Walsh effort pushed Valley\u2019s 0-6 to 0-1 ahead at the end of a dominant first quarter.<\/p>\n
Creditably, Eanna Desmond and Ronan Kelleher got to grips in midfield and Carrigaline enjoyed their best spell. Desmond and Kelleher points sandwiched another Chris O\u2019Leary score to make it 0-7 to 0-3.<\/p>\n
The Carrigaline points kept coming however, as Desmond, Brian Kelleher (twice) and Ronan Kelleher found their range. Rovers\u2019 O\u2019Leary converted a free and Brian McCarthy was denied a goal by another excellent Foster stop to leave the score 0-8 to 0-7 in Valley\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n
It was 0-12 to 0-8 at the short whistle thanks to O\u2019Leary (twice), Eoghan Crowley and Brian McCarthy. A Brian Kelleher free was Carrigaline\u2019s only response.<\/p>\n
A much improved third quarter saw Carrigaline reduce the deficit down to four. Two O\u2019Leary frees and a point, plus a super Ciar\u00e1n O\u2019Shea score, pushed Rovers 0-16 to 0-12 clear before Brian Kelleher and David Drake found their range.<\/p>\n
Yet, from the 42nd minute on, there was only one winner.<\/p>\n
Upping their intensity and winning every breaking ball around the middle third, Valley Rovers kept their opponents at arm\u2019s length until the final whistle.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Leary continued to punish Carrigaline from frees with Joe Twohig and Matthew Woods chipping in with superb individual efforts.<\/p>\n
It was 0-21 to 0-16 in Valley\u2019s favour despite a couple of rousing Rhys McCarthy and Brian Kelleher replies with five minutes to go.<\/p>\n
Any chance of an unlikely Carrigaline comeback was forgotten once Jack Walsh, Eoghan Crowley and Man of the Match Chris O\u2019Leary fired over from distance.<\/p>\n
0-24 to 0-17 ahead, Rovers\u2019 substitute Colm Butler put the seal on a commanding display with three consecutive points. Eoghan Crowley had the final say, splitting the uprights to confirm the most deserving of Valley Rovers triumphs.<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Valley Rovers: C O\u2019Leary 0-13 (0-8 f, 0-1 65), E Crowley 0-4, C Butler 0-3, J Twohig, J Walsh 0-2 each, S Ryan, C O\u2019Shea, B McCarthy, M Woods 0-1 each.<\/p>\n
\n Carrigaline: B Kelleher 0-8, E Desmond 0-3, R Kelleher, R McCarthy 0-2 each, C Kearney, D Drake 0-1 each.<\/p>\n
\n VALLEY ROVERS: M Kelleher, C Johnson, M O\u2019Leary, T McGrath; C O\u2019Shea, R Guinane, W Hurley; S Ryan, M Woods; J Walsh, B McCarthy, J Twohig; C O\u2019Leary (c), D O\u2019Connell, E Crowley.<\/p>\n
\n Sub: C Butler for O\u2019Connell (43).<\/p>\n
CARRIGALINE: R Foster; D Stack, D Greene, K Kavanagh; O O\u2019Connell, D Griffin, P Mellett; R Kelleher, E Desmond (captain); A Andrews, B Kelleher, C Kearney; K O\u2019Reilly, D Drake, N O\u2019Keefe.<\/p>\n
\n Sub: R McCarthy for O\u2019Keefe (h-t).<\/p>\n
Referee: Willie Wallis (Aghada). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Valley Rovers 0-28 Carrigaline 0-17 Valleys Rovers overpowered Carrigdhoun rivals Carrigaline in the opening round of the Co-op…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15389,1965,1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-579761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cork-county-championship","tag-hurling","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}