Dour derby doesn’t dampen the delight for Stephenites

Mayo SFC Semi-Final 

Ballina Stephenites 0-10 

Knockmore 0-7 

High on tension, low on quality, but neither statement of fact about this semi-final will bother Ballina Stephenites too much, as they overcame their neighbours to secure a second consecutive appearance in the county senior final.

Sunday’s North Mayo derby might have caused a mile-long queue of parked cars but the thousands of spectators who filled St Tiernan’s Park were given little to shout about, as this was a derby that failed to catch light.

A skirmish in deepest stoppage time did result in straight red cards to Knockmore sub Adam Naughton and goalkeeper Colm Reape, and to Ballina Stephenites attacker Jack Irwin, whose participation in the final is now in serious doubt, but in the overall scheme of things this contest was an underwhelming affair.

When Darren McHale nudged his side one point ahead in the 40th minute, that point would amount to the only one scored from play by a Knockmore forward for the entire game. Equally, it took Ballina Stephenites until the 44th minute to score from play, and you couldn’t help but feel afterwards that Breaffy – whose talisman Aidan O’Shea was among the attendance – will hardly be shaking in their boots about the challenge of taking on Stephenites in the final. The match, on the weekend after next, will be a repeat of the first-round clash that saw the Green and Red prevail by a single point.

Knockmore will have regrets, in particular at not managing to lead by more than one point at half-time. Having soaked up a wave of Ballina pressure during the first quarter, by the 23rd minute they had managed to restrict their opponents to just one point. However, at the other end, Peter Naughton kicked three wides and was denied scoring a goal by David Clarke’s point-blank save and by striking the rebound against the post. In a low scoring game, every miss – Colm Reape’s ’45 included – was costly.

By half-time, Knockmore had kicked five wides but only three points, from wing-back Liam Durkan, full-back Aaron Timlin and Aiden Orme, a free. And yet that was still enough to see them lead Ballina by one point, with Luke Feeney, from a third-minute mark, and Evan Regan, a 23rd-minute free, scoring Ballina’s paltry first-half haul.

Feeney, at full-forward, was proving a very useful outlet and the towering teenager flashed a 20th-minute goal chance at the clubhouse end just wide of the top left corner, despite his team being down a man due to Conor McStay’s black carding. But Ballina probably should have capitalised better on the possession Feeney was able to secure so close to the Knockmore posts.

Late first-half wides by Evan Regan and Niall Feeney prevented Ballina from going in all-square at half-time but a wonderfully struck 45-metre free by Regan three minutes after the restart, did leave the scoreboard reading 0-3 apiece and acted as the catalyst to a hugely improved second-half performance by Niall Heffernan’s team.

Frank Irwin was unfortunate not to score a pair of long-range frees, the first caught above the Knockmore crossbar by ‘keeper Reape and the other rebounding high off the post, but Evan Regan was on target from a Ciaran Boland-won free to negate Knockmore’s opening point of the half, scored by Darren McHale after a lovely threaded pass by Orme.

Luke Feeney gathered a cross-field delivery and offloaded to midfielder Dylan Thornton who ended the third quarter by firing over Ballina’s first point from play, and when Colm Reape’s kick-out landed straight to the opposition’s Sam Callinan, Regan received the pass to blast over from 45-metres and send Ballina into a 0-6 to 0-4 lead.

Reape’s kick-outs had been coming under serious pressure all game, and that would remain the case, except that Knockmore were first able to draw themselves back level, courtesy of 47th and 49th-minute points by Aiden Orme and Peter Naughton, both of them from frees awarded for fouls on Connell Dempsey and Kevin McLoughlin.

Stephenites turned to the experience of Sean Regan and Ciaran Treacy off the bench for what the attendance hoped might be an explosive final quarter, but the cautious tendencies of both sides would continue, albeit the methodical and patient attacking approach of Ballina did reap its dividends.

Wing-back David Tighe delivered an excellent pass to Evan Regan whose pointed mark handed the townies a 51st-minute advantage that they would never surrender. Another Reape kick-out landed in Ballina hands, this time the ball breaking kindly for Conor McStay who darted through the centre to put two points between the teams.

Knockmore attempted to close the gap but when kicks by Liam Durkan and Darren McHale dropped wide, the deficit was increased to three, 0-9 to 0-6, by Ciaran Treacy who fired over from distance in the 58th minute.

Peter Naughton and Evan Regan traded points from frees but it would take until the fifth and final minute of stoppage time for Knockmore to create the opportunity of an equalising goal. It came when a late tackle on substitute Adam Naughton resulted in a 13-metre free that Aiden Orme drilled low. Ballina goalkeeper David Clarke saved that shot, Jack Irwin blocked Orme’s follow-up, and when the ball ended up in Orme’s arms for a third time and he was fouled, the flare-up resulted in three dismissals – for Ballina’s Jack Irwin and Knockmore’s Adam Naughton and Colm Reape, who had come forward from goal to assist the attack.

Ballina managed to bottle up Keith Ruttledge on the restart and cleared their lines to the sound of referee Jerome Henry’s full-time whistle.

Only four times in the past 35 years has the beaten team in the Mayo SFC final managed to lift the Moclair Cup twelve months later. A better display will likely be required if the Green and Red are to achieve that.

Scorers – Ballina: Evan Regan 0-6 (4f, 1m), Luke Feeney (m), Dylan Thornton, Conor McStay and Ciaran Treacy 0-1 each.

Knockmore: Aiden Orme and Peter Naughton 0-2f each, Liam Durkan, Aaron Timlin and Darren McHale 0-1 each.

Ballina Stephenites: David Clarke; Liam Golden, Ger Cafferkey, Padraig O’Hora; Ciaran Boland, Sam Callinan, David Tighe; Frank Irwin, Dylan Thornton; Niall Feeney, Mark Birrane, Jack Irwin; Evan Regan, Luke Feeney, Conor McStay. Subs: Ciaran Treacy (for Birrane 44), Sean Regan (for Thornton 47), James Doherty (for Feeney 53).

Knockmore: Colm Reape; Marcus Park, Aaron Timlin, Adam Battle; Liam Durkan, David McHale, Kieran King; Kevin McLoughlin, Shane McHale; Pearse Ruttledge, Darren McHale, Connell Dempsey; Aiden Orme, Peter Naughton, Oliver Armstrong. Subs: Keith Ruttledge (for Armstrong 42), Adam Naughton (for S McHale 55), Sean Holmes and Caolan Hopkins (for David McHale and Durkan 58).

REF: Jerome Henry (Castlebar)