Rovers raid Cork again

Cork Harlequins froze when it mattered most as their Irish Junior Cup odyssy came to an end with a 4-1 quarter-final defeat to Three Rock Rovers at Harlequin Park on Saturday. Without the services of Rob Hobbs and Mark Lombard, Quins’ second string looked as if they’d drag Rovers – who had seen off C of I in round one – into a dogfight early on, only for their challenge to falter as too many players had uncharacteristic off-days. Quins had the better of the opening exchanges, bar the visitors’ Rob Priestman dragging a shot wide of Carl d’Alton’s goal, and they had the go-ahead goal inside eight minutes. Darren Farrell was aghast to see his conversion of Paul Murray’s square ball chalked off as umpire Brian Attiridge had already signalled for a corner, but it mattered not as Brian Hayes Curtin snapped up a rebound after Dan Hobbs’ drag had been taken off the line by a Rovers defender.

Wendel Armstrong was then called upon to make a fine save down his left side from another Hobbs drag, but Rovers settled thereafter and equalised from their first corner on 21 minutes, Garry Ringwood dragging stylishly in off the post after the ball was switched left at the top. David Storey then dinged one off the upright with d’Alton beaten after Colin Huet had done the hard work as cracks began to appear in the Quins rearguard. And when they let Stephen Findlater get to the by-line four minutes later, they were ruthlessly punished as Andy Macken first-timed the full-back’s pull-back to the net. Chances became few and far between either side of half-time; Colin Ross and Dickie Barrett probed menacingly for Quins but without any end product, while Ringwood ran the show for a Rovers side content to hit back on the break. Rovers were also eking out more corner chances in the second half, and on 46 minutes worked the ball around to Ross Varian in the injector position to net their third. Quins were forced to go for the jugular now, and Armstrong did brilliantly to pluck another Hobbs drag bound for the top corner out of the air. But that left gaps at the back for Rovers to exploit, and Varian got away down the right before squaring for ex-UCC man Roly Budd to tap in the killer strike on 56 minutes. Meanwhile, Cork Church of Ireland can look back with contentment on a good weekend’s work which saw them net 13 goals, continue their 100% league record and reach a second Munster cup final. Having dispatched Catholic Institute 7-0 at Rosbrien on Saturday, Mark Ruddle’s men faced a potential banana skin in Bandon 24 hours later in a re-fixed Peard Cup semi-final. David Hobbs proved the catalyst for a 6-2 victory, but it was only in the second period that the visitors began to put the home side away. Hobbs nutmegged Ian Hosford from a tight angle on 15 minutes to open the scoring for C of I, but it was eight minutes after half-time before that advantage was doubled, Phil Sweetnam tapping home a Hobbs cross. John Jermyn found the top left corner with a drag-flick five minutes later, but Darren Beamish gave Bandon hope when he met David Smith’s cross at the back post. That was extinguished by two goals in three minutes for C of I, Alec Moffett producing a tidy finish on his reverse after Hobbs had gone on a solo foray and played him in, before Jermyn produced a copycat of his first effort for 5-1. A Bandon short corner shot was inadvertently deflected into Billy Lynch’s net by a C of I post man on 64 minutes, but Stephen Sweetnam cancelled that strike out by applying the finishing touch from close range to a neat team goal. Men’s Div 1 Catholic Institute 0 Cork C of I 7 Peard Cup semi-final Bandon 2 (Darren Beamish, AN Other) Cork C of I 6 (John Jermyn 2, David Hobbs, Alec Moffett, Philip Sweetnam, Steve Sweetnam) Irish Junior Cup quarter-final Cork Harlequins 1 (Brian Hayes Curtin) TRR 4 (Garry Ringwood, Andy Macken, Ross Varian, Roly Budd)