Ballinrobe triumph up north to reach county final
Ballinrobe's Owen Corcoran and Naomh Padraig's Fionnán Mac Conghamhna at the McHale Agri, Forest & Garden U21 Finals launch in Hastings Insurance MacHale Park last week. Picture: Mayo GAA
A trip up north has brought great reward for Ballinrobe as the South Mayo club defeated Naomh Padraig to seal their place in the Mayo U21 B final.
They led from start to finish, with two first half goals putting them in a commanding position. The loss of Liam Maughan to a black card early in the second half did no favours to Naomh Padraig – an amalgamation of Ballycastle, Killala, Kilfian and Lacken at underage level – and Ballinrobe would soon extend their lead to seven.
Ballinrobe themselves would be reduced to 14 men with ten minutes remaining after Cian May was sent off but Naomh Padraig could not make the man advantage count like their opponents did earlier in the half, with Ballinrobe kicking 1-4 in the final stages of the game to seal their place in the decider.
Ballinrobe had a slender lead, 0-3 to 0-2 at the end of the first quarter, thanks to David Cameron, Conor Jennings and Rossa Burke, while Naomh Padraig were already showing signs of being off radar, with four wides and another attempt coming off the upright in the opening 15 minutes.
The visitors would punish Naomh Padraig further when Conor Jennings’s point attempt that was drifting wide was kept in play by Ballinrobe, and Cian May would rifle home for their first major of the afternoon.
Mark Munnelly and Aaron Crowley exchanged points before Ballinrobe netted their second goal on 23 minutes. Diarmuid Duffy’s skyscraper dropped short, but the Naomh Padraig goalkeeper failed to deal with the ball and Cameron bundled it in.
The home side’s response was impressive, Mark Munnelly hitting three points inside 90 seconds to leave four between them and it would remain that way at the interval after Conor Jennings and Sean Gildea traded efforts to leave it 2-5 to 0-7 in favour of the Robesiders.
After another Munnelly free cancelled out Cameron’s opening point of the second half, Maughan was then black carded. Half-time substitute Caelan Tansey would score two of Ballinrobe’s next four points as Ballinrobe opened a seven-point gap while at the other end, Raymond Murphy and Gildea were denied majors by the Ballinrobe goalkeeper and a goal line clearance by Caomihín Donnelly.
Munnelly and Cameron traded points once more before Ballinrobe would find themselves a man down after Maye was shown a second yellow card. But Naomh Padraig could not find the goals needed to reel Ballinrobe in, with their last point of the day coming from Ruairi McDonnell. Ballinrobe, meanwhile, raced for home thanks to Diarmuid Duffy, three points from placed balls from Tansey (including a two-pointer), and a late breakaway goal from Cameron, who took his personal tally to 2-5, as they booked a showdown with St Jarlath’s in the decider next weekend.
