10-man Ballinrobe lose the battle of the Towns

Westaro Cup – Round 1 

Ballinrobe Town 0 

Ballina Town 2 

Patrick Hennelly in Ballinrobe 

Two goals during the final 11 minutes from Dylan McKee and Jamie Cawley helped Ballina Town negotiate a tricky away assignment against 10-man Ballinrobe Town, in South Mayo, on Saturday evening last.

This game may have lacked decent clear-cut chances but more than made up for it in terms of endeavour and tenacity from both sides over the course of the 90 minutes.

There was plenty of tempo and raw energy from the hosts at the start, with Shane Ryan seeing his strike on four minutes whistle wide, after some great approach play from his teammate Danny O’Toole.

Ballina were under the cosh during the embryonic stages of what for the hosts in particular was an eagerly awaited cup clash and during the first-half the visitors were limited to sporadic long-range efforts, as they found a vigilant Ballinrobe defence difficult to breach.

Ballina’s Benny Lavelle worked tirelessly during the first-half and he was always trying to produce that neat manoeuvre and turn in the 18-yard box, which was very testing for the home defence, with Ballinrobe’s impressive teenage duo of Theo Bellanger and Sean Hughes kept on their toes.

The Belleek Park men very nearly fashioned the lead on 29 minutes but Dylan McKee’s ambitious drive skied over Sean Shaughnessy’s crossbar.

Oisin Connolly was also a lively presence for the Red and White and time and time again he managed to win tackles and produce moments of magic in the middle of the park. On 43 minutes, Xavi Vasquez’s troops almost received the perfect tonic ahead of the half-time pep-talks. The energetic Dean Shaughnessy collected possession and darted past his marker and into the Ballina box, with his close-range strike stinging the gloves of Emmet Peyton, with the former’s cross from the rebound flying across the face of goal when crying out for a touch.

It appeared that Ballina had weathered the first-half storm from their hosts and on the resumption the visitors seemed a more settled outfit, with McKee again trying his luck from distance but alas it was a similar outcome to his first-half effort.

Ballinrobe were still a threat on the counterattack, however, the Robesiders were just lacking that clinical cutting edge in front of goal.

The Blue and White were eager to grab the all-important first goal, with Oisin Tighe seeing his strike flash wide on 65 minutes, before teammate Lavelle saw his effort on 71 minutes force a fine reflex save from Sean Shaughnessy.

The game was really in the melting pot, however, the Ballinrobe game-plan suffered a major set-back on 73 minutes when Killian McHugh was shown a straight red card from referee Eric Eaton.

Vasquez was forced to reshuffle his deck and make a tactical switch, but those plans were thrown into disarray on 79 minutes when the visitors plundered the lead. The goal derived from the right-wing and Dylan McKee was quickest to react in the home box by glancing home a tidy close-range header beyond the despairing drive of Shaughnessy.

Seconds later, Vasquez was himself issued with a second yellow card by the referee and was dismissed from the home dugout.

The hosts never recovered from being reduced to 10 men and Ballina’s guile came to the fore on 86 minutes when they effectively ended the game as a contest. A defensive lapse and misplaced pass by Ballinrobe was seized upon by the guests and Tighe’s pilfering run ended with Jamie Cawley rustling the back of the net.

The doughty hosts did have the chance of pinching a consolation strike during the dying embers of the stoppage time, but Peter Butler’s effort didn’t find its intended target.

Ballinrobe Town: Sean Shaughnessy, Sean Hughes, Theo Bellanger, Gary Mellett Connolly, Oisin Connolly, Rory Walsh, Dean Shaughnessy, Shane Ryan, Jose Poblaciones, Jonathan Lawrence, Danny O’Toole. Subs: Killian McHugh (for Ryan 54), JP O’Gorman (for D Shaughnessy 58), Peter Butler (for Poblaciones 75), Rafael Aquino and Ben Place (for Mellett Connolly and Lawrence 89).

Ballina Town: Emmet Peyton, Stephen Melvin, Andrew Shally, Chris Moore, Chris Maughan, Conor Quinn, Oisin Tighe, Ciaran Gaughan, Benny Lavelle, Dylan McKee, Jamie Cawley. Subs: Daniel Gorman (for Gaughan ht), Jamie Moyles (for Melvin 75), Conor Gorman (for Lavelle 77) Ashton Judge (for Cawley 89), Lee Corcoran (for Quinn 90+4) REF: Eric Eaton