Nemo Rangers Secure Narrow Victory Over Fermoy in PIFC Clash

Nemo Rangers 4-13, Fermoy 3-10: City side survive late storm after first-half blitz

For 30 minutes in Glenville, this McCarthy Insurance PIFC tie looked like a training drill. By the end, Nemo Rangers were hanging on to a nine-point win that felt far tighter than the scoreboard suggested.

At half-time it was a rout: 3-12 to 0-3. By full-time, it was a rescue job.

Nemo ruthless, Fermoy rattled

Nemo exploded out of the blocks. Two minutes gone when Dylan O’Connor slipped Callum O’Neill through and the corner-forward buried the first goal. From the restart, Dave Calnan clipped over a point. Fermoy were already scrambling.

With four minutes played, the gap was yawning. Dara O’Sullivan finished Nemo’s second goal, the Trabeg men cruising at 2-1 to no score and bossing every restart.

Fermoy finally stirred when Shane Aherne opened their account, followed by a David Lardner free, but it did nothing to change the pattern. Nemo were sharper, hungrier, and ruthless on turnovers.

Jack Coogan and Jack Horgan added points as the city side tightened their grip. Then came the third hammer blow on 10 minutes. Fermoy coughed up a loose restart, Nemo pounced, and Conor O’Donovan fed O’Sullivan, who made no mistake. 3-3 to 0-2 and Fermoy in serious trouble.

Martin Brennan landed Fermoy’s third and final point of the half after 14 minutes. From there, it was all Nemo.

O’Neill split the posts again, and only a fine save from Dale Dawson denied Horgan a fourth goal. O’Sullivan tacked on another point, and O’Donovan chipped in with two in a row as the pressure mounted.

Then Nemo’s goalkeeper stepped up – literally. With five minutes to the break, Donagh O’Leary came forward and drilled over the game’s first two-pointer from a free. Matthew Keenan followed with a point, before O’Leary repeated the trick with a second two-point free.

By the time the whistle went, Nemo were 3-12 to 0-3 clear. Fermoy looked buried.

Fermoy fight back from the brink

Whatever was said in the Fermoy dressing room at half-time, it worked.

Arlen Aherne came in for the restart and immediately made an impact, clipping the first score of the second half. Tomás Clancy pushed higher up the pitch, while Shane Aherne drifted out around the middle and began to win dirty ball. Suddenly, the physical battles were going Fermoy’s way.

But just as the comeback flickered, Nemo struck again. Coogan rattled in their fourth goal, and when O’Sullivan added a point on 37 minutes, it proved to be Nemo’s last score of the night. At 4-13 to 0-4, it looked over.

It wasn’t.

Fermoy tore into the final 20 minutes. Lardner ignited the revival with a goal, then tagged on a point before smashing home a second green flag. In the space of a few minutes, he had dragged it back to 2-6 to 4-13 after 42 minutes and forced Nemo onto the back foot for the first time.

Shane Aherne and Brennan chipped in with points as Fermoy’s belief surged. Fionn Lardner then landed a two-pointer, the kind of score that sends a murmur around a ground. Nemo, so slick and composed earlier, were suddenly clinging to their lead.

The pressure kept coming. Fermoy pushed bodies forward, hunted in packs, and drove at a Nemo side who had lost all attacking rhythm. The city men could not find another score; they simply tried to see it out.

The last act belonged to Arlen Aherne. With the final touch of the game, he buried Fermoy’s third goal, a strike that underlined the turnaround but arrived too late to change the result. The whistle went on a 4-13 to 3-10 win for Nemo that felt more like a warning than a statement.

Fermoy will walk away wondering what might have been if they had played the first half with the same ferocity as the second.

Scorers

• Nemo Rangers: D O’Sullivan 2-2 (2f), C O’Neill 1-1, J Coogan 1-1, D O’Leary 0-4 (2 two-point frees), C O’Donovan 0-2, D Calnan, J Horgan, M Keenan 0-1 each.
• Fermoy: D Lardner 2-2 (2f), A Aherne 1-2, S Aherne 0-2, M Brennan 0-2, F Lardner 0-2 (including one two-pointer).

Teams

Nemo Rangers: D O’Leary; C Molloy, C Coughlan, A Cronin; C O’Neill, E Nation, D Coughlan; E Kelly, D Calnan; O White, D O’Connor, J Horgan; D O’Sullivan, C O’Donovan, J Coogan. Subs: M Keenan for J Horgan (16 inj), C Yellend for C O’Neill (46), P Kerrigan for J Coogan (50), S O’Dwyer for A Cronin (54).

Fermoy: D Dawson; J Molloy, B Daly, P O’Neill; F Lardner, T Clancy, M Brennan; P Murphy, J O’Brien; D Daly, G O’Callaghan, E Healy; B Twomey, S Ahern, D Lardner. Subs: A Aherne for B Daly (ht), C Fitzpatrick for E Healy (46).

Referee: Brian Crowley (Castlehaven).