Ruthless Ballina respond in derby rout
Ajay McGrath of Conn Rangers, left, chases Ballina Town’s Óisin Tighe. Picture: John Corless
Ballina Town won the North Mayo derby in style as Conn Rangers unable to live with the intensity of their hosts in the Sunday afternoon sunshine in Belleek Park.
Mick Duffy, the Ballina Town manager, said the intensity was coming from the players.
“Sooner or later, we were going to have to start turning the defeats we’ve had into wins, so it’s about people taking ownership. Right from the off Benny Lavelle was closing down the Conn Rangers players trying to play out. You can see the quality of his play and the way he created the penalty for himself – turning the defender and forcing him into a tackle. He’s ruthless. All the players really showed up today, and took responsibility.”
Conn Rangers went into the game as favourites given the form of both sides. They had four Super League wins from four, to Town’s one win from five. Town had been well beaten by Castlebar Celtic on Thursday night, and needed this result to get a grip on their season.
Rangers had to play for 40 minutes with ten men, after Chris Moore was shown a second yellow for a foul on Benny Lavelle in the box. As Moore was making his way to the dressing room, Lavelle was blasting the penalty past Ryan Herbert in the Conn goal. That was the fifth time the goalkeeper had to scoop the ball from the net on Sunday.
Lavelle served notice on the Conn defence as early as the tenth minute when he shot millimetres wide, after getting in behind the defence. Seven minutes later, Ryan Moran’s shot was weak under pressure from Moore, before Lavelle pounced on the loose ball, to open the scoring. The lead was deserved, because Town dominated from the off; they were hungrier and pressed up on the Rangers defence.
Oisin Tighe fired over to keep the pressure on Conn, and then Ryan Moran laid one off to PJ Gilmartin, who should have done better. A minute later he did better – finding the net from Lavelle’s pass, for the first of three goals in sixteen minutes to put the game well beyond his former club. Lavelle was involved in Ballina’s third – passing to the unselfish Moran who set up Gilmartin. And the young striker broke the Conn high line, for his third and Ballina’s fourth, to complete his sixteen-minute hat trick.
Conn’s only efforts in the half, came from Eoin Prendergast who didn’t trouble Emmet Peyton in the Ballina goal.
Conn’s misfortune continued after the break with the double blow of the sending off and Ballina’s fifth goal. Conn manager Joe Faughnan will be happy that at least his side kept trying, but they were outclassed all over the park by the resurgent home side.
Town put on a very impressive performance. Conor Quinn, playing in the number six role, cut out anything Conn Rangers tried. Dylan McKee was tenacious in the middle, relishing the battle and leading by the example of a true captain. Ryan Moran was outstanding – holding up and laying off the ball, in the traditional centre-forward role, and Benny Lavelle tormented Rangers on the wing and cutting inside. And PJ Lavelle’s three excellent goals sealed the points.
It was hard to single out a single Ballina player, but McKee shaded the man of the match award.
“This performance has been coming for a long time,” McKee told the . “We weren’t clicking for a while, but once our first goal went in, you could feel the energy on the pitch. In other games we weren’t taking our chances; we just weren’t on the pace, but hopefully this will be turning point for us now. I am delighted with my own performance, because I haven’t been fully fit for a while.” PJ Gilmartin said it was nice to win in such style after losing a few games.
“It’s nice to go out and put five on the board,” Gilmartin said. “It was about time I started scoring. Ryan (Moran) is a lovely striker to play alongside. He’s happy to bounce off you, and it’s all about the team anyway, not about individuals. People might have seen us as underdogs going in to this match, but we didn’t see it that way. We’re delighted with the result.” Joe Faughnan, the Conn Rangers manager, said the scoreline might be a bit of a surprise given how one-sided the match was.
“They were really up for it today,” Faughnan said, “and I though they played very well. I had seen them a few times this season and things hadn’t clicked for them, but we were off the pace today, which is disappointing. We knew they’d have a reaction to their Thursday night defeat to Castlebar Celtic, which they did, but we didn’t meet that today.”
