Nemo Rangers Survive Late Fightback from Fermoy
For half an hour in Glenville, this McCarthy Insurance PIFC tie looked like a non-contest. By the end, Nemo Rangers were hanging on against a transformed Fermoy side that left the pitch wondering how they had let it get so far away in the first place.
At the break, Nemo led 3-12 to 0-3. That is not a typo.
They had ripped Fermoy apart in a ruthless opening spell, goals flying in, points clipped over, the game apparently put to bed long before Brian Crowley’s half-time whistle. Yet the final scoreboard – Nemo Rangers 4-13, Fermoy 3-10 – told the story of a second half that swung wildly in the opposite direction.
Nemo blitz from the off
Nemo started like a side in no mood for drama. After just two minutes, Dylan O’Connor sliced open the Fermoy defence and slipped in Callum O’Neill, who finished for the first of three first-half goals.
From the restart, Dave Calnan tagged on a point. Fermoy could barely get out of their own half.
By the fourth minute, the ball was in the Fermoy net again. This time Dara O’Sullivan applied the finish, and the Trabeg men were already 2-1 to no score in front.
Fermoy finally stirred a minute later. Shane Aherne got them on the board, and David Lardner added a free to at least give the scoreline some shape. It didn’t last.
Nemo simply kept coming. Jack Coogan and Jack Horgan split the posts as the city side tightened their grip. Then came the third goal, and it was a gift. A loose restart from the Fermoy defence was seized upon, Conor O’Donovan pounced, and O’Sullivan buried his second to make it 3-3 to 0-2 after 10 minutes.
Martin Brennan hit Fermoy’s third point on 14 minutes. That would be their last score of the half.
Nemo, by contrast, were relentless. O’Neill added another point, and they might have had a fourth goal but for a sharp save from Dale Dawson to deny Horgan. O’Sullivan nudged the lead out again, and O’Donovan swung over two tidy scores as the pressure mounted.
Then even the Nemo goalkeeper got in on the act.
With five minutes to the interval, Donagh O’Leary came forward and drilled over the first two-pointer of the night from a free. Matthew Keenan added yet another point before O’Leary repeated the trick with a second two-point free. By the time the teams headed for the dressing rooms, Nemo were 3-12 to 0-3 clear and cruising.
Fermoy rip up the script
Whatever was said in the Fermoy dressing room at half-time, it worked.
They reshuffled. Former Cork man Tomás Clancy pushed higher up the pitch. Shane Aherne drifted out around the middle and began to win ball. Arlen Aherne was introduced and immediately brought energy and purpose.
He clipped the first score of the second half to signal a change in tone. Nemo replied in the most ruthless way possible – with their fourth goal, Coogan finding the net to stretch the lead again.
O’Sullivan added a point in the 37th minute. Remarkably, that would be Nemo’s final score of the game.
From there, it was all Fermoy.
The comeback started with a bang as David Lardner rattled in a goal. He followed it with a point, then struck again with a second goal to suddenly make it 2-6 to 4-13 after 42 minutes. Nemo were still well clear on the board, but the momentum had swung completely.
Shane Aherne and Brennan tacked on points as Fermoy surged forward at every opportunity. Fionn Lardner then landed a two-pointer to deepen Nemo’s unease and give the Fermoy support something to really cling to.
The pressure didn’t ease. Fermoy kept asking questions, kept forcing turnovers, kept running at a Nemo side that had lost all of its earlier fluency.
The final act summed up the entire second half. With the last touch of the game, Arlen Aherne crashed home Fermoy’s third goal. It was too late to change the result, but not too late to change the mood. Nemo had won; Fermoy had finished like the stronger team.
Standouts and stats
For Nemo, Dara O’Sullivan led the way with 2-2, including two frees, while O’Neill and Coogan chipped in 1-1 each. O’Leary’s 0-4 from placed balls – both of his frees worth two points – underlined just how dominant they were before the break. O’Donovan’s 0-2 and single points from Calnan, Horgan and Keenan rounded off a spread of scorers that reflected their first-half control.
Fermoy’s resistance and revival were driven by David Lardner’s 2-2, with two frees, and Arlen Aherne’s 1-2 off the bench. Shane Aherne, Brennan and Fionn Lardner, who nailed a two-pointer, all finished with 0-2.
Nemo’s bench was used early and often, with Keenan coming in for the injured Horgan after 16 minutes, and later changes including C Yellend, P Kerrigan and S O’Dwyer. Fermoy’s key switch came at half-time, when Arlen Aherne replaced B Daly, and C Fitzpatrick joined the fray in the second half.
Nemo leave Glenville with the win and a reminder of how devastating they can be when they click. Fermoy leave with a different thought entirely: if they had played the first 30 minutes like they played the last 30, what kind of night might this have been?
