Breaffy remain unbeaten with hardfought victory up north
Breaffy's Aidan O’Shea calling for attention from the referee after a challenge from Belmullet's Evan Ivers. Picture: Ryan Gallagher Photography
Just over eight weeks on from when these sides met in a league encounter that would see the losers condemned to Division Two for next season they met again in an all more meaningful affair in Tallagh in Round Two of the Mayo GAA Senior Football Championship.
Both sides came in with wins under their belts in round one, but following Knockmore’s emphatic win on the road against Ballaghaderreen the previous evening, picking up the points was even more vital.
When all was said and done it was the West Mayo men who kept their 100 per cent record intact thanks to a strong second half showing in front of a healthy crowd on a glorious afternoon in north Mayo.
Both sides were bolstered from that league encounter with the return of their inter-county players and early doors it looked like the presumptive Footballer of the Year, Ryan O’Donoghue, was going to be the deciding factor in the game.
He landed two two-pointers, one from play and the other from a free, inside the opening 13 minutes - but from then on Conor Beirne got to grips with the Belmullet dynamo and kept as close tabs on him as any man has these past few months.
The hits were hard and often in the early exchanges as referee John Glavey let the play flow, to the pleasure and pain of both sides depending on which felt at a particular juncture they should have been awarded a free.
Yousif Coghill opened the scoring two minutes in with a point following a darting run into space down the stand side of their field. Three minutes later O’Donoghue struck his first two pointer of the day from play to a rapturous reception from the home faithful.
Belmullet, with the aid of the breeze, were going for two-pointers early on, but apart from O’Donoghue’s effort - they pulled three more efforts from that distance wide of the posts in the opening ten minutes.
Joe Mellett who had tormented the Belmullet defence in that league encounter got his first point of the game to level it up on seven minutes after Matthew Ruane had been fouled.
O’Donoghue put his side two to the good on 14 minutes with a well struck two point free, with Pierce Deane and Fionn O’Donoghue trading points not long after.
Aidan O’Shea made it a one-point game with a neat finish following a barrelling run through the Belmullet defence - but from the resulting kick-out Belmullet struck for the only goal of the day. Fionn O’Donoghue picked the ball up in the middle of the park, quickly played a one-two with Colin Barrett before finding Anthony Barrett. The Belmullet number 13 moved it on to James O’Donnell who flicked the ball back into the danger area and Anthony Barrett rose highest to palm the ball to the net after Livingstone had been taken out of the equation by O’Donnell’s flick back.
Breaffy did manage to get a point back through Conor O’Shea before the break, which saw Belmullet go in leading 1-5 to 0-5.
The second half was teed up to be a dramatic encounter, but when it got up and running the visitors took control of the game from the resumption - they controlled the ball for long periods and will be disappointed that they didn’t get more scores.
Mellett brought it back to a two-point game and then Aidan Cunningham pointed to leave just one between the sides. On the 45 minute mark Jack Livingstone stepped up to drive over a two-point free, having missed two previous efforts to put his side in front for the first time since the opening stages of the game. Robbie Fadden pushed Breaffy two clear a minute later and Belmullet still hadn’t registered a score in the half.
That didn’t change until the 49th minute when Anthony Barrett pointed and a minute later Eamon McAndrew who had just come on swung over the levelling score and it looked like we were set up for a grandstand finish.
But it wasn’t to be as Breaffy kept their composure and doing what they had been all half. Mellett pointed a free, Cunningham got his second of the day and when Pierce Deane’s two-point effort sneaked just inside the post on 58 minutes his side were four to the good.
Daire Morrin added his sides last score of the day on 60 minutes and while Belmullet went hunting for goals in the five minutes of injury time, the Breaffy rearguard were able to hold firm and Fionn O’Donoghue’s pointed effort deep into stoppage was all that his side could show for their efforts.
All is far from lost for Belmullet though. Heading into round three they will face a down on their luck Ballaghaderreen side who they will be expected to beat to move themselves on to four points in the table.
Breaffy will face off against a Knockmore side who will feel they have got their groove back and know they will need to get a least a point out of that one, if they don’t want the quarter-final placings to come down to scoring difference between themselves, Belmullet and Knockmore, if the Erris men do, as is expected, and see off the border boys from East Mayo.
Scores - Belmullet: Ryan O’Donoghue 0-2-0 (1tpf), Anthony Barrett 1-0-1, Fionn O’Donoghue 0-0-2, Eamon McAndrew 0-0-1.
Breaffy: Joe Mellett 0-0-3f, Pierce Deane 0-1-1 (1f), Jack Livingstone 0-1-0 (1tpf), Aidan Cunningham 0-0-2, Robbie Fadden, Daire Morrin, Yousif Coghil, Aidan O’Shea and Conor O’Shea 0-0-1 each.
Belmullet: Shane Nallen; James Lavelle, Colin Barrett, Shea O’Donoghue; James Ivers, Eoin O’Donoghue, James Kelly; Evan Ivers, Seamus Howard; Darragh Dixon, Fionn O’Donoghue, James O’Donnell; Anthony Barrett, Ryan O’Donoghue, Jack Lynch. Subs: Eamon McAndrew (for Lynch), Riain Concannon (for S O’Donoghue), Séami O’Raghallaigh (for Kelly).
Breaffy: Jack Livingstone, Mark Dervan, Conor Beirne, Conor Coghill, Yousif Coghill, Robbie Fadden, Daire Morin, Niall Carter, Matthew Ruane, Aidan Cunningham, Aidan O’Shea, Davitt Neary; Joe Mellett, Conor O’Shea, Pierce Deane. Subs: Tommy O’Reilly (for Mellett), Mark Ward (for Morrin).
REF: John Glavey (Aghamore)
