St Finbarr's (Cork) 1-17 Clonmel Commercials (Tipperary) 2-11
St Finbarr's kicked the final four points of a dramatic Munster club quarter-final to get out with a narrow victory over Clonmel Commercials.
Despite nine points from Steven Sherlock, Seán O’Connor’s goal looked to have given the hosts the edge down the stretch in front of 1,805 fans at Clonmel Sportsfield.
However, William Buckley and Ian Maguire led their charge in the final five minutes to secure a semi-final against Clare champions Éire Óg Ennis.
Both sides showed one change from their county final triumphs. Commercials were without former Tipp senior Kevin Fahey, while John Wigginton-Barrett didn’t feature for the Barrs.
A technical fault ruled the scoreboard out of action. Instead, stewards wrote the score on a whiteboard, while the public address made an announcement after each score.
Those announcements favoured the Barrs in the opening stages as they did most of the front-running through Sherlock, William Buckley, Brian Hayes, and Ethan Twomey points.
Commercials responded each time with Seán O’Connor (0-02) and Michael Quinlivan dominant figures down the centre.
When Sherlock finished off a two-point set play to push three clear, Commercials came up with the ideal reply. Joe Higgins won the kick-out, O’Connor and Quinlivan were involved, before the latter teed up Cian Smith for a tidy left-footed finish. The sides were all square, 1-03 to 0-06.
Commercials pressed on with two O’Connor frees, one of which was advanced 50 metres for Barrs backchat. After a Sherlock response, Ross Peters and Smith moved the hosts three ahead.
This time, the Barrs hit back with a major. Hayes played a one-two with Enda Dennehy, and while the Hurling All-Star’s shot was saved, Conor Dennehy poked in the rebound to make it 1-07 apiece.
Tipp U20 star Darragh O’Connor booted over a wonderful two-pointer, with Sherlock’s single leaving Commercials 1-09 to 1-08 ahead at half-time.
However, when Commercials didn’t release the ball for a free on the resumption, it was brought forward 50 for Sherlock to kick the go-ahead two-pointer. Twomey added to that with a white flag from a long ball in.
An O’Connor free settled Commercials, although they dropped three shots short and sent two wide in this spell.
Their inaccuracy was mitigated when Quinlivan pounced upon Jamie Burns’ slip and laid off for O’Connor to finish to the net. They led 2-10 to 1-11 with 14 minutes to play.
Then, more indiscipline was punished by a Barrs' free being advanced. Sherlock again curled over for the levelling two-pointer.
Still, it was the Barrs’ anger over a lack of decisions which saw their frustrations grow as Jack Kennedy edged Commercials ahead.
The visitors had one kick left. Buckley equalised before super-sub Cillian Myers-Murray exchanged a one-two with Maguire to kick a point which was deemed just inside the arc.
Buckley continued his charge in stoppage time, handpassing a point before releasing Maguire to fist over the insurance score.
Commercials went hunting for leveller in a prolonged goalmouth scramble featuring a series of blocked shots from Peter McGarry, Jack Kennedy, Colman Kennedy, and Seán Kennedy.
Clonmel Commercials: S Ryan; J Morris, T Condon, R Slattery; R O’Dowd, Séamus Kennedy, Cathal Deely; D O’Connor (0-02, tp), J Kennedy (0-01); R Peters (0-01), M Quinlivan (0-01), J Higgins; C Smith (1-01), S O’Connor (1-5, 0-4f), P McGarry.
Subs: Colman Kennedy for Peters (38'), T Sheehan for Deely (50'), Seán Kennedy for Higgins (58').
St Finnbarr's: D Newman; D Quinn, A O’Connor, S Ryan; B Hennessy, J Burns, C Dennehy (1-00); I Maguire (0-01), B Hayes (0-01); C Doolan, W Buckley (0-03), E Twomey (0-02); E Dennehy, R Barrett, S Sherlock (0-09, 2tpf, 1tp, 2f).
Subs: C Myers-Murray (0-01) for Barrett (42'), L Hannigan for E Dennehy (42'), E McGreevy for Burns (49').
Referee: C Maguire.
