Bizarre Tighe goal gives Ballina home quarter-final
Ballina Stephenites' Ger Cafferkey and Westport's Kevin Keane trying to gather possession. Picture: Conor McKeown
Ballina Stephenites completed a smash and grab victory with a last minute goal confirming their home quarter-final in the senior championship following victory over Westport.
In what was a clash of the last two county champions the West Mayo men looked the surefire victors for almost the entirety of this clash in Charlestown but the defending champions never say die attitude brought them back into the game and to victory.
A slip from goalkeeper Paddy O’Malley as he attempted to pass the ball across the face of his own goal to Lee Keegan caused his pass to go astray and Ballina corner-back David Tighe pounced on the opportunity to palm the ball to the open goal.
The look on Tighe’s faced showed as much shock about the unfolding situation as those in the crowd and in Westport colours in particular.
It was far from a classic as both sides will have hopes of potentially facing each other once again further down the road and it had the feel of a shadow boxing contest for the most part.
Rumours around the county that Westport would prefer to be away from home for the last eight looked to be very much unfounded as the men in blue ran into a four points to one lead after 11 minutes. Finbar McLoughlin, Kieran Kilkelly and a brace for Oisin McLoughlin, a later starter in place of Liam Shevlin, suggested Westport very much wanted to win and top the group.
But for the accuracy of Frank Irwin from placed ball, and one effort from play after 12 minutes, Westport would have been out of sight by the half-time break when they held a four point lead.
Ballina cut that back to one through points from Irwin, Mikey Murray and Sam Callinan but a double for Paul Lambert pushed the lead back to three.
Lambert’s second should have been a goal and is potentially the miss of the year by the Westport attack as they had a six on one advantage bearing down on goal and somehow contrived, through a poor pass from Mark Moran to Lambert, to only come away with a point.
They would rue that missed opportunity later in the game but were able to keep Ballina at arm’s length throughout the second period as Luke Jordan and Irwin swapped scores with Alan Kennedy and Kevin Keane.
The first big Ballina moment came in the 59th minute when a long range effort from Irwin dropped short and substitute Dylan Thornton rose above Paddy O’Malley to fist the ball back across the face of goal and to the net to level the game.
The Ballina contingent were still celebrating when Kilkelly edged Westport into the lead once again on 60 minutes.
Stephenites got a late chance when Frank Irwin drilled a ’45 goalwards but it cannoned back off the upright and was gathered by a Westport defender who was subsequently fouled.
The free was taken by Lee Keegan to his goalkeeper and from there calamity ensued and David Tighe ended up putting the ball to the net for the victory and a trip for one of Castlebar Mitchels, Knockmore or Ballintubber to James Stephens Park in two weeks’ time.
