Ballina come out on top in battle of the North
Evan Regan, who scored five points for Ballina, looks to pounce on the loose ball.
In the end, it was routine as Ballina Stephenites set up a Connacht semi-final showdown with Sligo champions Coolera/Strandhill in two weeks time.
There was no repeat of the one-sided affair against Fulham Irish last year. North London Shamrocks gave it as good as they had and should have been much closer at half-time, but the lack of killer instinct came back to haunt them. At the other end, Ballina’s ruthless efficiency in front of the posts, with only two wides in the first half, meant a goal was not needed. Their accuracy tailed off towards the end of the game but it was over as a contest at that juncture.
The Stephenites were more or less full strength, minus the injured Ger Cafferkey. But a demonstration of Ballina’s strength in depth saw Padraig O’Hora moved to full-back and he was a deserved winner of man of the match.
Whether snuffing out the NLS threat or carrying the ball out of defence to set up attack, the county star was superb. Elsewhere, Frank Irwin, Mikey Murray, David Tighe, Brendan Collins and Evan Regan all impressed on the day while Ciaran Treacy and Dylan Thornton both made an impact off the bench in the second half.
It was not without a scare or two. NLS should have been much closer to their opponents at half-time but two goal chances – one a penalty miss – came back to haunt them. Their best player on the day, London senior footballer Ciaran Diver, caused an increasingly isolated Sam Callinan plenty of problems but once Ballina improved at the back in the second half, chances were few and far between for the Donegal man and his teammates.
Yet it appeared that would be the case from the off. NLS, who had not played for almost a month after their London SFC final win over St Kiernan’s, operated a very defensive strategy but struggled to get to grips with the intensity of Ballina’s play early on. Seven minutes in, Ballina were 0-3 to 0-0 up courtesy of two scores from Evan Regan, one free, and a point from Frank Irwin after some patient play in working the opportunity.
Joe McGill opened up the NLS account on 11 minutes after being picked out by Ruairí Rafferty before the latter was involved the penalty a minute later. A ball into Rafferty instead bounced over the corner-forward, catching out the Ballina rearguard, and Ultan Boyle was in goal. Liam Golden brought down and NLs were awarded a penalty, with Golden booked for his foul. Former Donegal player Michael Carroll stepped up to take but dragged his effort wide.
Dominating their own kickouts as much as the Shamrocks restarts, Ballina punished the penalty miss with points from Mikey Murray and Luke Doherty. The warning from the penalty was not heeded, however, and NLs were in again through Ciaran Diver but he blazed his shot over the bar instead of under it.
Diver’s point, and a skyscraper from Joe McGill, were met with responses from Regan and O’Hora. Irwin, a free, and the impressive Diver traded points, the latter’s a fine individual score but a well-worked moved finished off by Niall Feeney made it 0-9 to 0-4 at half-time in Ballina’s favour.
NLS introduced Thomas Lenihan and Johnny Sweeney and the former cancelled out Frank Irwin’s opening point of the second half. A placed ball from McGill reduced the gap to four but that was as close as the Londoners would get. Ballina’s defence would tighten up from here while at the other end, they would hit five points without reply to lead by nine with eight minutes remaining. Luke Doherty came up with the first two and that was followed by Regan’s fourth free, one from substitute Brendan Collins and a fisted effort by Brendan Collins.
Ballina rang the changes at this stage. Luke Feeney, O’Hora, Doherty and Golden all departed, with Niall Heffernan having one eye on the next challenge in a fortnight. The fate of NLS was sealed but they soldiered on until the end as McGill, a free, Michael Carroll and Diver, fittingly, hit the final efforts for the home side late on.
