Clinical Saints punish wasteful 'Heane
Action from the FAI Junior Cup tie between St Michael’s v Ballyheane. Picture: John Corless
Quality of finishing was the difference between these two sides on Sunday, as the hosts converted three chances out of four; Ballyheane on the other hand, converted none from five. Other than that, the game was fairly even, with Ballyheane being much the better side in the second half.
Goals win matches as the cliché goes, and Ashley Stevenson and Joe Redmond, the Ballyheane management duo, will scratch their heads searching for an explanation as to why they conceded two cheap goals from throw-ins while at the other end, how they didn’t hit the net at least once.
The difference in the sides was brought into sharp relief just before half-time. With St Michael’s a goal up, an excellent cross from Jack Tuffy was headed over the bar by the unlucky Dan Purcell. A minute later, Nathan Reilly-Doyle lost his footing in the box, as he raced to connect with a fine diagonal pass from Adam Blake, and the ball trickled into the welcoming hands of Jakub Beben. Two scoreable chances. Seconds later Michael’s were two up, when the unmarked Russel Quirke drove Ed O’Dwyer’s cross, past Luca Meldrum.
Earlier, in the 14th minute, Ballyheane had failed to close down winger Shane Ryan and the equally unmarked David Slattery met his cross with a powerful header.
Instead of heading to the dressing room at least 1-1, Ballyheane were two down, away from home. On the face of it, the game was over.
To their great credit, Ballyheane ripped into their opponents in the second half. Michael Fahy and Seán Kilcoyne drove forward from midfield, and Adam Blake at full back linked well with Ben Edeh who terrorised the Michael’s defence all day. Reilly-Doyle and Purcell threatened in the box and a goal seemed inevitable. Unfortunately for Ballyheane, when it came, it was at the wrong end.
Irish junior international Jimmy Carr scored a wonderful individual goal to put the tie beyond the spirited Ballyheane side. Carr’s touch, control, turn and shot manoeuvre was textbook, and like before, the Michael’s goal came after a series of really good Ballyheane chances. Reilly-Doyle was unfortunate with two efforts, and Purcell saw his penalty saved, after Donagh Hickey had handled in the box. Purcell was really unlucky to see his effort from the parried ball, go millimetres wide.
Luca Meldrum made a fine save late on to keep the score at three. He bravely advanced to deny man-of-the-match Slattery.
On the injury front, Jack Rochford’s first-half withdrawal, looked like a hamstring problem. Reilly-Doyle picked up a knee injury that looked like he would have to leave the action, in the first half, but he walked, and later, ran, it off. Adam Blake’s late departure was down to recurring cramp after his constant running.
It won’t be much consolation for Ballyheane to know that they gave a really good account of themselves against a more experienced and, marginally, technically better side. Cup ties favour those who take their chances and don’t present their opponents with gifts in front of goal. The young side will learn from the experience and if they can carry the tenacity they have shown in their last two outings in this competition into the domestic league, they will be a force to be reckoned with.
Ballyheane manager, Ashely Stevenson, thought that the three-nil scoreline flattered St Michael’s. “We’ve had two throw-ins where we’ve switched off and they’ve gone and scored,” he said. “We’ve had a great chance just before half time to make it one-one, and we didn’t take it, and we’ve again switched off and they’ve scored a second, instead. Then, after the break, we’re all over them. We’re camped in their half and we get a penalty and their ’keeper makes a great save.
"I couldn’t be more proud of them today. We were more than good enough to go into the next round of the competition. It’s just those key moments where we haven’t put the ball in the net, and we’ve switched off in two key moments and they have scored. And that’s just down to a bit of experience. But during the second half it was hard to tell which was the home team. We pinned them back and looked more than comfortable. They can be proud of themselves. Hopefully we’ll move on now and take this form back into the Mayo League and cup competitions. We had to make an early switch when Jack (Rochford) has had to come off, but we settled in again and got on with it.” Ben Edeh said that Ballyheane were a bit sluggish at the start.
“They’re a good side,” he said. “But we came into the game then and we were on top. But then they scored. But we got back into it again; we had a good chance but we didn’t finish. Then they went back down and scored and they went-in, two up. We battled really hard in the second half but it wasn’t to be today. We worked really hard but we just couldn’t get the goal that would have brought us back into it. We just lacked that extra bit of quality. They took their chances and that’s it.” It was difficult to single out Ballyheane’s best player. Edeh was unmarkable, Fahy was tenacious and Blake worked really hard. Seán Kilcoyne probably shaded it with strong well-timed tackling, all-round work effort and distribution.
