Newcastlewest 0.08 - 0.06 The Nire
The Nire bowed out of the Munster Club senior football championship this afternoon as Newcastlewest claimed a two-point victory in testing conditions.
Eoin Hurley kicked 5 points for the home side who claimed an 0-8 to 0-6 victory which sees them through to a last-four clash against the Kerry champions.
The sides were level at half-time, 0-4 apiece, and nine minutes of additional time were played in the 2nd-half due to a serious injury to Seamus Hurley who was stretchered off.
Tom Barron had a late goal chance but his effort was well saved spectacularly by Andrew Ruddle.
Michael Ryan's team were without James Mcgrath, Jamie Barron, Shane O' Meara, Mike Moore, and Stephen Ryan before a ball was kicked.
Speaking to WLR Sport at full-time manager Michael Ryan said they came very close, but were just short of the mark on the day.
We came very close. We could have stolen it at the end, but I wouldn't say 'stolen' because we certainly weren't inferior to them in any shape or fashion here today. We could have got the goal at the end - Tom Barron did an awful lot of work to get into the position - unfortunately, the goalie stopped it. We're disappointed because regardless of who we were missing we still were good enough to win the game.
We Probably missed one or two chances we'd normally get. Overall I'm immensely proud of the lads because they came up here away from home, lost five players with COVID during the week, lost Shane Ryan with injuries today. We didn't just lose any player we lost our captain James McGrath we lost people like Jamie Barron, we lost Shane O'Mara, Mike Moore, and Stephen Ryan as well. So you know we lost quality players.
Drom and Inch 1.8 - Portlaw 0.6
Nothing went right from Portlaw before or during the game.
Before the ball was thrown in at all they were short three of their key players in Darren Rocket, Luke woods, and Frank Calvin.
John Power, who had scored four points from free's had to go off injured with his hamstring.
In the 35th minute, Jack Boylan was sent off on a second yellow, and the game was decided when Michael Donnelly got a straight red; but that was more frustration with a referee decision.
Portlaw only got one point from play in the whole game thanks to DJ Foran right at the end of the game. It was a possession game by both teams with nobody prepared to take a kick at the posts.
Although Portlaw finished the game with thirteen men, you couldn't say that they had poor discipline as they conceded less frees than their opposition.
