St Michael’s 1-8 St Vincent’s 0-5: This Cork Premier IFC first round tie at Páirc Uí Rinn yesterday won’t live too long in the memory.

While it was a poor game of football, it won’t bother St Michael’s too much, as they got over the line with a bit to spare and also produced impacts off the bench.

St Vincent’s, meanwhile, will be terribly disappointed with their performance, given it took all of 46 minutes for them to register their first point from play.

A lot of scoring chances were spurned in a largely unproductive opening half hour. Still, both sides kept plugging away. By the end of which, St Michael’s were in front by a solitary point.

Whilst neither side will need reminding of how difficult it is to succeed in this championship, St Michael’s manager Noel Creedon was happy to take the win and move on, especially as they were coming off a one-point county final defeat to Carrigaline from late last year.

“We were missing eight from the county final team today and then we had to make two changes before the game. So to be able to dig out a result is good,” he said.

“In that respect, it is positive in that there is always a bit of a legacy after losing a county final and you never know how you are going to go. Considering all of that, we have a lot of positives to take out of the win.”

After a quarter of an hour, we had no score from open play. In fact, there was just one point on the board and that arrived in the third minute from St Vincent’s free-taker John Paul Murphy.

St Michael’s opened their account 15 minutes later when sub Micheal Mulconry pointed and his score was quickly followed by another from Eoghan Buckley. Another sub, Liam O’Sullivan, handed St Michael’s a slight advantage at the changeover, 0-3 to 0-2.

St Vincent’s cause wasn’t helped when they lost Wayne Long to a black card soon after the restart. And when Eoghan Buckley bagged the only goal of the game after 40 minutes of play (after a quick free from Mulconry), they took charge, moving into a 1-7 to 0-3 lead. St Vincent’s did get a couple of scores near the end but there was no disputing St Michael’s superiority, with the energetic Liam O’Sullivan finishing well.

“Liam had a great game, he is just out of minor,” added Creedon. “He didn’t look out of place at all today so it is good to see that.”

St Vincent’s await the losers of Wednesday night’s game involving Éire Óg and Nemo Rangers in Round 2B.

Scorers for St Michael’s:

E Buckley (1-1), L O’Sullivan (0-3), E Hegarty, P Deasy, K Hegarty and M Mulconry (0-1 each).

Scorers for St Vincent’s:

John Paul Murphy (0-2, one free), G McCarthy, D Duggan and C Barry (0-1 each).

ST MICHAEL’S:

C Denn; C O’Shaughnessy, A Nolan, D O’Shea; E Hegarty (Capt), A O’Callaghan, A Giltinan; T Gberevbie, P Deasy; C Kilcoyne, E Hickey, L Conway; K Hegarty, E Buckley, P Cronin.

Subs:

M Mulconry for T Gberevbie (12), L O’Sullivan for P Cronin (14), K O’Sullivan for L Conway (49), S Keating for C Kilcoyne (56).

ST VINCENT’S:

P O’Shea; D Collins, P Cunningham, D Fenton; Aiden O’Callaghan, D O’Regan (Capt), G McCarthy; Anthony O’Callaghan, S Buckley; A Buckey, D Duggan, W Long; A Harte, S Cunningham, John Paul Murphy.

Subs:

J O’Mahony for John Paul Murphy (25), John Paul Murphy for W Long (BC 35), D O’Connor for J O’Mahony (42), A Good for P Cunningham (54), C Barry for S Cunningham (56).

Referee:

Patrick O’Driscoll (Bride Rovers).