Ballina Town hold on to win the Premier Cup

Mayo Premier Cup Final

Ballina Town ‘B’ 2 

Swinford 1 

Nathan Keane in Umbro Park 

A Tiernan Tighe brace was enough to see Ballina Town ‘B’ emerge as Mayo Premier Cup champions on Sunday afternoon in Umbro Park. Swinford pushed the eventual winners to the very end, and they got close to an equaliser on numerous occasions before full-time.

The game got off to a very intense and physical start, with both sides pressing the opposition relentlessly. No one on the pitch had much time on the ball, and both sides found it hard to control the game in the early stages. The first shot of the game was taken by Ballina’s David Cassidy, but his effort was expertly blocked, and the ball went out of play.

The resulting corner caused chaos in the Swinford box. The ball was whipped towards the back post by Ted Rowe, headed across goal, and tapped into the back of the net by Tighe for Ballina Town to snatch the lead after a quarter of an hour.

In the following ten minutes, Swinford had a handful of chances to equalise, with Ballina centre back Marcus Lacuesta called into action to intercept an effort by Matthew Leadbetter after he was played through on goal from a Niall Egan flick-on header.

Lacuesta was brilliant for Ballina for the whole ninety minutes. He cleared every ball in sight, and he helped drive his side up the pitch multiple times.

The game really started to come to life after twenty minutes. Swinford striker Niall Egan had two shots from close range go narrowly wide. Following another good delivery into the box from Ted Rowe, Swinford cleared the ball and started an attack of their own - John Dunleavy played in Dylan Toner, but he failed to capitalise on the opportunity.

Swinford nearly found their equaliser with a moment of magic from Matthew Leadbetter. The left winger chipped the ball up before sending a powerful volley towards goal, but he was denied by a great Aaron Reilly save. Town almost scored moments later, David Cassidy was agonisingly close to getting on the end of a Tighe cross, but despite the end-to-end nature of the first half, there was only one goal in the first 45 minutes.

Swinford had a promising start to the second half. Dylan Toner and Jack Murphy both had efforts on goal that were saved but ten minutes after the restart, Town went on to punish Swinford for these missed chances. From a Ballina goal kick, the ball found its way into the path of Tighe, who found the top right corner from distance with an incredible strike to double Ballina’s lead.

Swinford continued to push to get back into the game. However, they failed to create many clear-cut chances. Dylan Toner had a header saved, and John Dunleavy had a shot go well over the bar.

After Ballina’s Sam Monaghan failed to convert from a nice passing play, Daniel Harrington’s headed effort went wide up the other end, while Ballina substitute Ryan Moran nearly sealed the game with an incredible volley that went slightly astray.

However, with just under ten minutes to go, Swinford received a lifeline from forward Niall Egan. From a good free kick position, Egan sent a right footed shot curling into the bottom left corner to half the deficit.

Swinford gave it their all in search of an equaliser, and the best opportunity they created in the final stages was a David Taylor header that went wide, but Ballina’s defence held out to claim the Premier Cup.

Ballina Town: Aaron Reilly, Ted Rowe, Alex Monaghan, Marcus Lacuesta, Kevin McCarron, James Mulligan, Sam Monaghan, Kyle McLoughlin, Tiernan Tighe, Paul Moran, David Cassidy. Sub used: Ryan Moran.

Swinford: Jamie Leahy, Ewan Murphy, David Taylor, Daniel Harrington, Thomas John Groarke, Neven Grufferty, Jack Murphy, Dylan Toner, Niall Egan, John Dunleavy, Matthew Leadbetter. Subs used: Mark Dunleavy, Mohammed Alom, Evan Rowley. 

REF: Philip O’Brien Gleeson.