Late flurry sweeps C of I to victory

The pieces finally fitted together in brilliant fashion for Cork Church of Ireland in the Peard Cup final at Garryduff yesterday, their late assault sweeping them past bitter rivals Cork Harlequins on a 4-1 scoreline. Frustration at missed chances had characterised their 2-0 league defeat to Quins on home turf nine days ago, and the same doubts could have crept in here when they let Phil Oakley’s side back into the game after taking a lead through Nigel Buttimer. But three eye-catching goals in the final 10 minutes put the issue to bed in style, with a further festive bonus coming in the assured performances of teenagers Richard Sweetnam, Alex Burns and Richard Lynch.

A tepid first-half mirrored the recent league clash, with few circle entries and four spurned short corner chances opportunities for C of I. Quins badly missed fulcrum Mark Black, absent due to his impending marriage, and David Lombard, while C of I had a slew of players on the missing list, forcing them to move Andy Herbert back to sweeper. That left David Hobbs and David Eakins to contest the midfield battleground, a battle the C of I man won, keeping his side on the front foot. That pressure earned a 44th-minute corner which was switched left for Nigel Buttimer to bash home. But Quins then produced their best period of the encounter, despite losing Colin Ross to the sin-bin for preventing a quick free being taken. Paul Lombard drew an excellent reaction save from Billy Lynch when he pulled on a loose ball in the circle, while Herbert had to pull off an excellent recovery tackle on the former Irish international after he had intercepted Andrew Daunt. Quins also earned their first corners of the afternoon, Dan Hobbs showing his trademark accuracy in drag-flicking home their second set-piece on 54 minutes. That annoyed the hosts but they responded by adding width and pace to their attacks, though it was some magic from Munster U18 captain Richard Lynch that broke the deadlock. He danced past a couple of Quins tacklers and engineered enough space in the circle to fire home with the aid of a deflection off keeper Chris Daunt with seven minutes to go. The killer goal three minutes later was made and finished in the Sweetnam household, Richard finding older brother Stephen with a 50-yard reverse pass, and the frontman found the bottom corner with an equally well-placed reverse-stick shot. And another young gun, Gary Wilkinson, got in on the act a couple of minutes from time, collecting a loose ball off a botched corner and finding the room to beat Daunt. CORK C OF I: B Lynch (GK, capt); D Harvey, A Herbert, R Sweetnam, N Buttimer, David Hobbs, A Daunt, R Lynch, S Sweetnam, G Wilkinson, P Sweetnam. Rolling subs: G Chambers, S Wolfe, A Burns, D Treacy. CORK HARLEQUINS: C Daunt (GK), J Black, J Hobbs, R Hobbs, Dan Hobbs, D Eakins, P O’Driscoll, C Ross, D Egner, P Lombard, P McLaughlin. Rolling subs: B Hayes Curtin, S Thompson, J Sweetnam. Umpires: B Attridge & M Coombes. Neville Cup final: Railway Union 3 (F Maher, R Abbott, K Chapple) UCD 1 (N Burns); Kirk Cup final: Lisnagarvey 2 (S Arbuthnot 2) Cookstown 1 (G Cuddy);