Nemo Rangers Hold Off Fermoy's Late Surge After Dominant First Half
Nemo Rangers 4-13 Fermoy 3-10
McCarthy Insurance PIFC, Glenville
For half an hour in Glenville, this looked like a non-contest. By the end, Nemo Rangers were hanging on to a game they had long since put to bed.
A 3-12 to 0-3 half-time lead tells its own story. Nemo were ruthless, slick, and utterly dominant. Fermoy, chasing shadows, looked beaten long before the break. Yet the scoreboard at full-time – 4-13 to 3-10 – hinted at a very different second act and a comeback that arrived far too late.
Nemo’s first-half demolition
Nemo exploded out of the blocks. After just two minutes, Dylan O’Connor sliced open the Fermoy defence and slipped in Callum O’Neill, who buried the first goal. From the restart, Dave Calnan swung over a point. Fermoy couldn’t get a grip on the ball, never mind the game.
By the fourth minute, the ball was in the net again. Dara O’Sullivan finished Nemo’s second goal, and the Trabeg side were already cruising at 2-1 to no score.
Fermoy finally stirred. Shane Aherne clipped their first point, and David Lardner added a free a minute later. It did nothing to disturb Nemo’s rhythm.
Jack Coogan and Jack Horgan pushed the lead out with tidy points, and then came the third hammer blow. A poor defensive restart in the 10th minute was punished ruthlessly: Nemo pounced on the loose ball, Conor O’Donovan picked the right pass, and O’Sullivan slammed home his second goal. 3-3 to 0-2, and Fermoy were in deep trouble.
Martin Brennan landed Fermoy’s third and final score of the half on 14 minutes. After that, it was one-way traffic.
O’Neill tagged on another point for the city side, and only a sharp save from Dale Dawson denied Horgan a fourth goal. O’Sullivan kept the scoreboard ticking, with O’Donovan chipping in twice as Nemo stretched the gap with ease.
Then came an unusual flourish. With five minutes to the break, Nemo goalkeeper Donagh O’Leary trotted up and nailed a two-point free. Matthew Keenan added a point, and O’Leary repeated the trick with another two-pointer before the whistle. By half-time, Nemo were out of sight at 3-12 to 0-3.
Fermoy fight back – but too late
Whatever was said in the Fermoy dressing room worked. So did the changes.
Tomás Clancy pushed higher up the pitch. Shane Aherne drifted out around the middle and started to win ball. Arlen Aherne came in at half-time and immediately injected energy and intent.
He opened the second-half scoring, hinting at a response. Nemo, though, landed what looked like the final punch when Coogan fired in their fourth goal. O’Sullivan added a point in the 37th minute – Nemo’s last score of the night – and at 4-13 to 0-4, the game appeared done.
Then Fermoy finally caught fire.
Lardner crashed in a goal to spark the comeback, followed quickly by a point. He then struck again, bagging his second goal to drag it back to 2-6 to 4-13 after 42 minutes. Suddenly, Nemo were under pressure for the first time.
Shane Aherne and Brennan clipped over points as Fermoy poured forward. Fionn Lardner then stepped up with a two-pointer, tightening the margin and cranking up the tension in the closing stages.
Nemo, having swaggered through the first half, were now clinging to their lead.
The last act belonged to Fermoy. With the final touch of the game, Arlen Aherne rattled in their third goal. It cut the deficit, underlined their transformation, and left a sting of regret. For all their second-half bravery, the damage had been done long before.
Standout performers
For Nemo, O’Sullivan led the way with 2-2, including two frees, while O’Neill and Coogan each finished with 1-1. O’Leary’s 0-4 from placed balls – both of his frees worth two points – added a quirky edge to the scoring chart, with O’Donovan, Calnan, Horgan and Keenan all chipping in.
Fermoy’s revival was driven by Lardner’s 2-2, split evenly between play and frees, and Arlen Aherne’s 1-2 off the bench. Shane Aherne, Brennan and Fionn Lardner, who landed a two-pointer, all played their part in dragging the tie back towards respectability.
Nemo advance with the win, but the memory of that second half will linger. Fermoy’s players, and their supporters, will leave Glenville with one nagging thought: what if they had started like they finished?
