Fermoy suffer a heavy defeat from Douglas Hall
FERMOY left the city battered and bruised after this 4-0 thumping on Friday last — and lucky it was only four.
With the definite edge in class, Hall took the game to their visitors from the start and looked dangerous from the word go.
After two goal chances it took Hall only eight minutes to notch up their first after Fermoy keeper Adrian O'Driscoll managed to parry a rasping shot only to see the rebound crossed back into the path of Mark Maher, who made no mistake from close range.
With Fermoy fire-fighting in defence Hall continued to threaten and it wasn't long before they doubled their lead after the active and dangerous Mark O'Riordan was put through on goal by Sean Moynihan; the defence caught flatfooted.
Before the end of the half Fermoy did manage one decent effort on goal when a Mike Brennock free-kick from the edge of the area was held by Hall keeper Ian O'Sullivan. However, it was a rare event and at half time it looked like Hall could have done better than their 2-0 advantage.
Fermoy brought on Ricky Fraher and Aidan McCarthy, for Johnny Barry and Sean O'Connor, at half time in an effort to come to terms with the onslought but the result was decided soon after the restart. This came from the boot of the inrushing Sean Moynihan who wrong-footed keeper O'Driscoll with a flick-on from a pin-point cross from the right wing.
Fermoy had some cause to dispute Hall's fourth as the game almost stalled when the ref went down injured only for the intrepid Mark O'Riordan to capitalise on the situation and thump the ball into the net. However, the goal was allowed stand and it wouldn't have made much difference to the result.
With the outcome beyond doubt Fermoy still battled on and did come close to snatching a consolation goal in the dying minutes when Brian O'Hagan blazed just wide but the north Cork side will have to steel themselves better when meeting Premier opposition in the future.
