Eastern neighbours unite to sneak past Stephenites
The jubilant Ballaghaderreen-Kilmovee team celebrate with the Michael Waldron Perpetual Cup after they defeated Ballina Stephenites in the Homeland County MFC 'B' final at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, Castlebar, last Saturday evening. Pictures: David Farrell Photography
In what was a nail-biting finale, Ballaghaderreen-Kilmovee held off a late rally from Ballina Stephenites to win their first ever minor title since their amalgamation at underage level, at a rain-sodden MacHale Park last Saturday evening.
Ballaghaderreen-Kilmovee, playing with the aid of a strong breeze in the first-half, opened their account inside 30 seconds through their tricky corner-forward Ryan O’Sullivan before Conor Mayock struck a giant two-point free to edge the Stephenites in front on eight minutes.
O’Sullivan missed a big chance to find the net on eleven minutes after seeing his effort come back off the post but Oisin Duffy made amends a minute later, former Mayo minor Conor Moriarty supplying the ball for Duffy to produce a lovely finish into the corner of the net.
The early introduction of dual star Niall Peoples for Ballina Stephenites would had a big impact to stem the East Mayo tide. He was involved, along with Patrick Carr, in setting up Matthew Jackson for a point and then, two minutes after Ballaghaderreen-Kilmovee’s opening major, Oisin McCann turned over the ball inside the Ballaghaderreen-Kilmovee half and put through Peoples to plunder in a goal for Ballina and put them back in front.
Moriarty’s free for Ballaghaderreen-Kilmovee brought the gap back to a point, and it was ten minutes before the next score arrived through a Conor Mayock placed ball for Ballina.
But Ballaghaderreen-Kilmovee would strike 1-2 without reply before the break. After a skyscraper from Oran Frain and a single from Aaron Duffy, Oisin Duffy scored a superb second goal as he went through two defenders before giving Ballina goalkeeper Daniel Cowan no chance with his thunderous strike, as the men in the white, gold and green led 2-4 to 1-5 at the break.
Conor Mayock and Patrick Carr pointed for Ballina early in the second-half but two separate infringements from the North Mayo side saw Conor Moriarty strike over 13 metre frees, as well as two scores from play coming from Ryan O’Sullivan, to extend Ballaghaderreen-Kilmovee’s lead to four going into the final quarter.
A third Mayock free made it a three-point game once more before Mayock missed another free to cut into the lead further, and Ballaghaderreen-Kilmovee would then convert an inspirational score as Oisin Duffy chased down a breaking ball before setting up Ryan O’Sullivan for his fourth point of the evening.
The East Mayo boys finished the game with fourteen men after Declan Duffy was shown a black card for dragging down Patrick Carr outside the arc. Carr converted the two-point free and then a ’45 to leave the minimum between them in stoppage-time but Ballaghaderreen-Kilmovee defended heroically in the final stages to claim the Michael Waldron Cup.
Scorers – Ballaghaderreen-Kilmovee: Oisin Duffy 2-0-0, Ryan O’Sullivan 0-0-4, Conor Moriarty 0-0-3f, Oran Frain 0-0-1, Aaron Duffy 0-0-1.
Ballina Stephenites: Conor Mayock (1tpf, 3f) and Patrick Carr (1tpf, 1 ’45) 0-1-3 each, Niall Peoples 1-0-0, Matthew Jackson 0-0-1.
Ballaghaderreen-Kilmovee: Noel Regan; Matthew Naughton, Callum Sweeney, Harry Dooney; Liam Boyle, Declan Duffy, Ronan Coleman; Sean Buckley, Conor O’Gara; James Kilroy, Oran Frain, Oisin Duffy; Aaron Duffy, Conor Moriarty, Ryan O’Sullivan. Subs: Patrick Regan (for Naughton 48), Cathal Moriarty (for Kilroy 59).
Ballina Stephenites: Daniel Cowan; Jack Clarke, Diarmaid Duggan, Conor Burke; James Ruane, Sean Fleming, Michael McNamara; Conor Jordan, Jack O’Brien; Conor Mayock, Oisin McCann, Andrew Barrett; Michael Carolan, Patrick Carr, Matthew Jackson. Subs: Niall Peoples (for Carolan 14), Oscar Moore and Eoin Golden (for Burke and Jackson 33).
REF: Enda Nolan (Balla)
