Champions in control despite late Ballagh’ barrage
Ballaghaderreen’s Shairoze Akram offloads the ball as Ballina's Ciaran Boland gives chase during last Saturday's Connacht Gold Mayo SFC quarter-final in Ballaghaderreen. Pictures: David Farrell Photography
We should have known better than to doubt the mettle of back to back champions.
Whatever indicators hinted at the possibility of Ballaghaderreen avenging last year’s narrowest of semi-final defeats were utterly misleading as Ballina Stephenites, on Saturday, demonstrated that it’ll take a seriously good opponent to relinquish them of the Moclair Cup this season.
There was a conviction about Niall Heffernan’s side from the outset, with five unanswered points by five different players inside the opening eleven minutes dampening the mood among the home supporters. And while it had the makings of an intriguing second-half when an early converted free by Kuba Callaghan reduced Ballagh’s arrears to two points, he just didn’t have enough attacking assistance to trouble the visitors. Callaghan was the only Ballaghaderreen forward to score and yet even he was held scoreless from play, which says as much about the quality of Ballina’s defending as it did about the home side’s reliance on the senior championship’s top scorer.
It was the perfect result in many ways for the Moysiders; comfortable enough that a stern message has been sent to all would be challengers yet one that still left them with things to attend to on the training ground.
Like how after scoring only twice – and nothing from play – in the second-half of their previous round win against Garrymore, they improved on that only mildly here, kicking six wides and taking fourteen minutes before opening their second-half account. And that came after a first-half in which Ballaghaderreen had three decent goal chances before eventually finding the net through the first of Ballina’s two penalty concessions. And you’d have got long odds on wing-back David Tighe raising more flags from play than any of his Stephenites teammates, with his trio of first-half singles effectively the difference between the sides at half-time, at which stage Ballina held a 1-8 to 1-5 lead.
There was also some late, late drama which coincided with the introduction of Andy Moran. The Mayo manager forced a second Ballagh’ penalty which Kuba Callaghan again converted and then Moran smacked a shot towards the top corner of Ballina’s goal which drew a goal-line save from a defender. And yet the four points between the teams at full-time still barely reflected the Green and Red’s dominance on the evening.
There was the stiffest of cross-field breezes to which Ballina Stephenites had adapted quickest, as David Tighe, Evan Regan, Sam Callinan, Conor McStay and Niall Feeney each kicked points to leave their side 0-5 to no score in front after eleven minutes. Ballagh’ had actually managed two goal chances by this time, the first in the opening minute when David Drake’s fisted pass to the back post left Callaghan with too much of a stretch, the other when a long-range free from Callaghan was allowed bounce in the goal-mouth, with neither John Higgins or Sharoize Akram able to steer the loose ball on target.
Midfielder Ryan Lynch eventually ended Ballagh’s wait for an opening score when lofting over a two-pointer on 13 minutes and while the home defence stood back and allowed David Tighe to double his tally, Tighe’s opposite number, Adam Phillips, negated that point before Kuba Callaghan converted a free from outside the arc to narrow the gap to one by the 19th minute, 0-6 to 0-5. Had full-forward Matthew Connor not also shot quite tamely at Clarke, then the locals could even have held an unlikely lead.
But it was Ballina who raised the game’s first green flag. Evan Regan had just slotted over a self-won free while Tighe had punched over his latest point when Luke Doherty received an inch-perfect pass to the back post by Regan and squared for the onrushing Mike Murray to bundle the ball into the net.
The 26th minute was witness to two goals however, as Ballagh’ retained possession from the kickout and a marauding run upfield by David McBrien saw the Mayo star dragged to ground, with referee Jerome Henry having no hesitation in awarding a penalty. Kuba Callaghan sent Clarke the wrong way to half his team’s arrears and leave three points the difference at the interval.
The restart burned slowly, with a free apiece by Callaghan and Frank Irwin the only scores of the entire third quarter, with the rest of that period filled by wides from Irwin, three, Luke Doherty, Ciaran Boland and Sam Callinan at one end, and by Ryan Lynch at the other. But a mid-half spurt by the Moysiders saw the Irwin boys, Jack and Frank, kick singles either side of an Evan Regan two-pointer, off his lesser used right boot, to open up a seven points gap by the time ex-Footballer of the Year Andy Moran was introduced to the Ballagh’ attack on 52 minutes.
Callaghan and Irwin swapped another free apiece to leave Ballina in the driving seat, 1-14 to 1-7, but the game was in stoppage time when a rasping low shot by Moran was stopped on the ground by Ballina sub Ciaran Sweeney for which Ballaghaderreen were awarded another penalty. Callaghan again got the better of Clarke and the margin between the teams could have become one point in the fifth added minute but for a defender’s strong hand to Moran’s goal-bound shot.
The champions had done enough.
Scorers – Ballina: Evan Regan 0-1-2 (1f), Mike Murray 1-0-0, David Tighe and Frank Irwin (3f) 0-0-3 each, Sam Callinan, Conor McStay, Niall Feeney and Jack Irwin 0-0-1 each.
Ballaghaderreen: Kuba Callaghan 2-1-2 (1tpf, 2f), Ryan Lynch 0-1-0, Adam Phillips 0-0-1.
Ballaghaderreen: Jamie Lunt; Aaron Lynch, David McBrien, Seamus Cunniffe; Kane Phillips, David Drake, Adam Phillips; Darragh Kelly, Ryan Lynch; Luke O’Grady, Kuba Callaghan, Shairoze Akram; John Higgins, Matthew Connor, Callum Coleman. Subs: Conor Moriarty (for Coleman ht), Cormac Doohan and Keith O’Donnell (for Higgins and K Phillips 47), Andy Moran (for O’Grady 52).
Ballina Stephenites: David Clarke; Liam Golden, Luke Jordan, Ciaran Boland; Sam Callinan, Padraig O’Hora, David Tighe; Mike Murray, Frank Irwin; Dylan Thornton, Conor McStay, Niall Feeney; Evan Regan, Luke Doherty, Jack Irwin. Subs: Luke Feeney (for N Feeney 55), Keith Tighe (for O’Hora 57, blood), Ciaran Sweeney (for Thornton 60+1), Barry Walsh (for Doherty 60+4).
REF: Jerome Henry (Castlebar)
