CBL Game of the Week: Swift edge out HELIO Inter Cork in the Race for the Title!

Swift 2 – 1 HELIO Inter Cork

Man of the Match: John Corcoran

Swift managed to edge out a tight contest in their CBL Premier Division game against HELIO Inter Cork in the Mayfield Sports Complex, writes Donncha Noonan.

As expected, the game started extremely tight from the first minute. Both teams are in the hunt for the Premier Division title, so this was a huge game for both sides. It was HELIO Inter who were the first to come close to a goal. Just six minutes in, they won a free kick on the edge of the Swift box. It was Joao Martins who stepped up to take it, but his effort went marginally wide of the left hand post.

The game was very cagey with both teams struggling to find that big chance that could give them the lead. The next chance of the game went to HELIO Inter with twenty five minutes gone. A long ball forward to the edge of the Swift box was nodded away, but only as far as Fulvio Bedoya Pabon who took a touch and hit it sweetly on the half volley and forced a good save from William Murphy to keep the game goalless.

Swift had chances of their own, and could have taken the lead with nine minutes left in the half. Swift won a free kick on the halfway line. John Corcoran took it and dinked it over the top of the right channel to James Buckley, who chased after it and tried to lift it over the onrushing Miguel Barcena Gomez, but Gomez smothered the shot to prevent Swift from being a goal to the good. That would be the last big chance of the half as both teams went into the break at a deadlock.

It was the second half where the game opened up a bit, with the opening goal of the game coming in the fifty fifth minute. Eoghan O’Sullivan battled hard to win the ball in midfield, before giving it to Jordan Cambridge who dinked it over the top for John Corcoran to chase, who hit it first time and rifled it into the top right corner to give his side the lead.

An already fiery game had just become even more so, as both teams battled to try to get another goal, and it was Swift yet again who got it in the seventy first minute. After a high ball landed in the HELIO Inter box, Eoghan O’Sullivan tried to control it but was brought down in the box and the referee pointed to the penalty spot with no hesitation. John Corcoran was the man to take it and he buried it into the back of the net to double his side’s advantage.

HELIO Inter knew the game was far from over, and they managed to get a goal back five minutes later. Bedoya Pabon received the ball on the edge of the Swift box, before laying it back to Nicolas Lavela Pacheco. Pacheco shot from distance and his shot managed to go through the hands of WIlliam Murphy and into the back of the net to give Helio Inter a way back into the game.

There was more drama to come late on, as Eoghan O’Sullivan received his second yellow of the afternoon in the eighty sixth minute due to him kicking the ball away after a free kick was given.

This however, wouldn’t matter in the end as Swift saw out their lead and came out victorious with a vital 2-1 win against their fellow title rivals. With that win, Swift now sit in third place, just four points off the top of the table with two games in hand. As for Helio Inter, they sit in fourth place, two points behind Swift and six points off the summit of the table.

Swift: W. Murphy, A. O’Sullivan, M. O’Connor Green, D. Kelleher, T. McSweeney, J. Cambridge, J. Buckley, M. Peters, I. Skillington, J. Corcoran, E. O’Sullivan, W. Corcoran, J.McCarthy, D. Keane, S. Coleman

Helio Inter Cork: M. Barcena Gomez, A. Hernandez Rosello, M. Galicia Barajas, E. Dallo Abaurrea, F. Bedoya Pabon, N. Gumbo, J. Martins, N. Lavela Pacheco, H. Sheedy, S. Castano Cailla, G. Peña da Silva, P. Dinamarca Labra, I. Rodrigues da Cruz, H. O’Neill, J. De Villa, J. Orozco Marin, J. Gomes, M. Ayala