Nurney hold their nerve to advance on penalties
John Jones of Hanover tries to block Parkville's Cian Madden during the Premier Division game on Sunday.
LAST SEASON'S defeated Douglas Jewellers Carlow Cup finalists, Nurney Villa, advanced to the next round following a closely contested tie with St. Fiacc's.
Fiacc's were dominant in the first half and well deserving of the fourteen minute lead, a goal by their high scoring Jamie Parr. The visitors should have got a second on 20 minutes but Fran Doogue miss kicked with an open goal at his mercy.
Villa responded to a stern talking to during the break and proceeded to take control of the second half however, Fiacc's defended well and kept the Nurney attacks at bay. However as the half proceeded the Villa pressure began to pay dividends. On 84 minutes a Val Fleming shot was blocked by the Saints, the ball fell to Villa's John Miley who lashed it back high into the back of the Fiacc's net for the equaliser. In the final six minutes of normal time Nurney had a couple of chances to win the cup tie, however the Saints goalkeeper made two excellent saves from Villa's Hugh Kelly and John Miley.
The game progressed into extra time but the score line of 1-1 remained unchanged in the first period. Then five minutes into the second period of extra time, Nurney's Jimmy Cullen advanced from left full back to score from the edge of the box and put Villa ahead for the first time in the fixture.
Fiacc's however were not finished and with seconds remaining, Patrick Scully equalised with a stinging shot to force a penalty shoot out. Pakie Fleming, Nurney's goalkeeper saved one spot kick and with all of the five penalties safely put away, Villa advanced to the next round.
(Shamrocks advance 4-3 on penalties)
SHAMROCKS recovered from a nightmare start when they were 2-0 down following twelve minutes, to knock out Division 1 side Grange.
Ciaran Gahan struck first for Grange on just four minutes when he was on hand to turn the ball home after the Shamrock's goalkeeper parried a blistering Niall Byrne shot. Eight minutes later Paddy Byrne ran onto a long clearance from Paddy O'Keeffe to slot home and seemingly put Grange on the way to victory. However, Shamrocks had not read the script and kept plugging away. Their reward came on 31 minutes when Saul Heavin put Colin Price in on goal to beat Charlie Timmons in the Grange goal and narrow the gap. Grange were determined to hold the advantage and on 40 minutes Johnny Kavanagh restored their two goal lead with a rasping drive which went in off a post to leave Grange 3-1 up at the break
Shamrocks showed great character to fight backing the second half and their cause was certainly helped by the introduction of three substitutes, Jamie Cooney, Kevin Coakley and John Owens to turn the tide in their favour. Darren Doyle reduced the arrears to the minimum when he headed in a Joe Lee corner. With five minutes to go in the contest Shamrocks levelled with a good John Kenny goal.
Both side had chances to win the game in extra time, Niall Byrne had a shot well saved and Kieran Gahan shot wide for Grange. At the other end, Charlie Timmons had to save well from Joe Lee to see the game go into a penalty shoot out. Shamrocks proved the best and advance to the next round.
