Davitts win South Mayo duel
Davitts ensured they qualified for the knockout stages of the Mayo U21 ‘A’ championship with a hard-earned 3-11 to 0-12 victory over Ballinrobe on Sunday morning. The game was played in Cong and while the playing conditions were far from perfect, both teams need to be lauded for serving up a very good game.
A point for Ballinrobe after thirty seconds was cancelled out by Jack Trench two minutes later. Dylan Gallagher, who had a superb game, popped over another Davitts point in the fourth minute before Davitts got the first of their three goals. A brilliant move involving several players was finished to the net by wing-back Brian Birmingham, who applied a cool finish to the corner.
In the 10th minute Jack Melvin slotted goal number two, after great work by Conor McDermott and Dylan Gallagher.
Ballinrobe shot four unanswered points to reduce the deficit to three points and were winning plenty of possession but the Davitts attack was extremely efficient. Dylan Gallagher pointed in the 23rd minute and Fionn McLoughlin extended Davitts lead to four before Ballinrobe scored two in the final couple of minutes to leave Davitts 2-4 to 0-8 ahead at half-time.
Ballinrobe scored the first point after the break but Davitts points from the hardworking Niall Treacy and Jack Melvin, in the 33rd and 37th minutes, put their side ahead by three. Treacy pointed again in the 40th minute but Ballinrobe scored two to close the gap to two points. They were also denied a goal to take the lead by a fantastic save from Davitts excellent goalkeeper Dylan O’Brien, with terrific defending by Davitts ensuring that Ballinrobe didn’t score for the remainder of the game.
Ciaran Treacy, a most impressive sub, linked up with Zack Keadin to point in the 47th minute and Dylan Gallagher shot three more as the Ballinrobe challenge petered out. The final score of the game was the third Davitts goal ,finished to the net by Fionn McLoughlin after a goalmouth scramble.
This Davitts win saw them top the group on score difference over Claremorris. Their stand-out players were Charlie Phillips, Sean Keadin, Thomas Ronayne, Jack Melvin, Dylan Gallagher, Fionn McLoughlin, Niall Treacy and Conor McDermott.
Davitts: Dylan O’Brien; Micheal Hett, Charlie Phillips, Sean Keadin; Fionnan Gallagher, Thomas Ronayne, Brian Birmingham (1-0); Mark Birmingham, Jack Melvin (1-1); Brian Og McTigue, Fionn McLoughlin (1-1), Jack Trench (0-1); Dylan Gallagher (0-5), Niall Treacy (0-2), Conor McDermott. Subs used: Ciaran Treacy (0-1), Zack Keadin, Sean Feerick, Ronan Kelly.
