Nicky Leads Rebels to Win

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Irish Voice Sport

Nicky Leads Rebels to Win

April 16, 2008

By Eugene Kyne

Cork 3-9 Down 1-07

NICKY Dineen left the field of play for 15 minutes due to an injury and came back inspired to lead Cork to the win and set them up for a semifinal place in the special senior football tournament now ongoing at Gaelic Park.

He scored 2-4 in the second half and also was fouled for a converted penalty. Tadgh Foley also contributed tremendously, with Cork rebounding from a low scoring affair last week to find the target repeatedly.

The teams swapped points to open the game, with the score from Seamus Kelly majestic for Down. Dineen had Cork’s reply.

As the game unfolded Pat Mahoney was already lording in the center for Cork with three high fielding efforts. Up front, however, they were meeting dogged defending from Dermot Hayes and Barry Annette, who were making everything twice as hard for the Rebels.

Fergal Shannon had the second from a free for Down, but alarmingly three players went down injured in the waning moments. Dineen and Ross Connolly had to leave the field of play at this time.

Cork did tie it up with a score from Foley when Tommy Quaid fed him with a low pass but Down, despite missing a couple of big guns, started to dominate with Sean Kelly and Sean Munnelly showing constantly for the defenders as options out of the back.

This created chances up front, with Liam Farrell and Seamus Kelly edging the team into a 0-4 to 0-2 lead. It stayed scoreless until the final tics of the half when Foley had Cork’s third, but Down will rue the missed opportunities that they had in the 10 minutes before the whistle.

While Dineen returned to the game and chipped over the tying point, it was Down that had a golden opportunity to open the game. A four player move that started with a fisted flick in the center from Sean Kelly went to Munnelly and Shannon before Farrell found himself staring down on goal. He faked the keeper, but his low shot went agonizingly wide.

Rory Galligan did atone for it with a point from play, but Cork took the let off and had their most productive period of the game in the next 10 minutes. A point from the floor from a free by Dineen was followed by a long ball to the square from Shane Langan that was fisted to the net by the bould Nicky.

He followed it within a minute by breaking in on goal and getting pulled down for a penalty that Foley sweetly dispatched to the net for a six point lead.

Seamus Kelly and John Fitzpatrick swapped scores, but the biggest swing was a straight red for Paddy Harrington of Cork when he tried to persuade the ball from beneath a Down player and paid for his transgression.

Another bolt of pressure from Down and the superb Shannon and we had our second penalty of the day when he was clipped to the ground. Kieran Potter got his hand to the slow low kick from Seamus Kelly, but it found the net to put the scoreline at 2-6 to 1-6.

Cork, however, were having none of it as they tallied 1-3 in the final five minutes, with Dineen getting a rebound goal after Mark Kelly made a brave save on his first effort. They dominated all facets of the field in this period, with Mahoney and Sean Lordan controlling the middle.

Cork will look at Paddy Harrington, before his dismissal, Keith McMahon, and Liam Hanley as the best of their defenders. Pat Mahoney was outstanding, and as the game unfolded Lordan also came alive. Tommy Quaid covered acres, the aforementioned Dineen and Foley were brilliant.

Down had players missing. They will need to beat Four Provinces next week to have any hope of a playoff slot.

Mark Kelly couldn’t be faulted. Brian Murray and Dermot Hayes first half, Sean Munnelly, Seamus Kelly, who was their best player, Sean Kelly and Fergal Shannon also contributed.

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