Five-star Belmullet beat the dreaded drop

Mayo SFC Relegation Final

Belmullet 5-5 

Kilmeena 1-9 

Darragh Walsh in James Stephens Park, Ballina 

Although both sides rose the same number of flags on Saturday evening, the saying that goals win games rang true as Belmullet found the net as many times as they split the posts to ensure they retained their senior status for 2025 and confirmed Kilmeena’s return to intermediate at the first time of asking.

Kilmeena had opened the scoring with the impressive Liam Moore firing over a couple of singles, the second a mark off the back of a superb high fetch. Darragh Keaveney added a point from play to extend the West Mayo side’s lead to three before Belmullet found their first score. This came on 18 minutes when Ryan O’Donohue converted a free and it was quickly followed by the game’s first goal, as Seamus Howard volleyed a bouncing ball across the square to Evan Ivers who made no mistake in finding the back of the net.

Belmullet, a point to the good, doubled their lead through O’ Donoghue but Liam Moore negated that, however, with three minutes of the first-half left to play, a four-man combination created the Erris men’s second goal. Shane Nallen’s kickout found Fionnán Ryan at midfield who laid the ball off to O’Donoghue who on the spin played through Ronan Murray and the full-forward drop-kicked the ball into the Kilmeena net.

The second-half started with James Lavelle raising a white flag to increase Belmullet’s lead to five points, 2-3 to 0-4, but Kilmeena replied with a couple of singles as John McGlynn converting a tough free against the wind and Keith Joyce punished a turnover from open play. But the three points now between the teams was quickly doubled when Ryan O’Donoghue scored arguably one of the goals of the weekend.

The Mayo attacker picked up the ball and carried 40 yards with a splitting run right through the Kilmeena defence before smashing the ball into the bottom right corner of the net from 20 yards out.

With the contest rightly heating up, both sides were reduced to fourteen men. Evan Ivers received a black card for a pull down on Jack Carney but Kilmeena’s John McGlynn would not rejoin the action as he saw red for an off-the-ball altercation. But before Belmullet could return to their full complement, Kilmeena raised their first green flag.

With 44 minutes played, Liam Moore saw his shot deflect into the back of Shane Nallen’s net but once again the three points difference between the sides didn’t last long as a couple of minutes later Eamon McAndrew struck Belmullet’s fourth goal. Conan O’Connor had ventured forward from full-back and forced a fine save from Paul Groden but McAndrew was ready to bury the rebound into the back of the net. The full-forward’s strike rounded off a helter-skelter 10 minutes that saw three goals and two dismissals.

Darragh Slattery was sprung from the Kilmeena bench to fire over a fine couple of points, reducing the difference between the sides to four. O’Donoghue rounded off his personal tally with his third point from a free as Liam Moore completed his tally of four, which was Kilmeena’s final contribution to the scoreboard.

Belmullet still had time to raise another couple of flags to cement their place in next year’s senior championship in style. Anthony Barrett provided a tidy finish to split the posts before Ronan Murray hit his second goal with an audacious finish into the top right corner of the net from a tight angle.

Scorers – Belmullet: Ronan Murray 2-0, Ryan O’Donoghue 1-3 (0-2f), Evan Ivers and Eamon MacAndrew 1-0 each, Anthony Barrett and James Lavelle 0-1 each.

Kilmeena: Liam Moore 1-4 (0-1f), Darragh Slattery 0-2, Darragh Keaveney, John McGlynn (f) and Keith Joyce 0-1 each.

Belmullet: Shane Nallen; Donal Barrett, Conan O’ Connor, Seamus O’Donnell; James Lavelle, Marty Boylan, Colin Barrett; Evan Ivers; Seamus Howard; Leo Howard, Ronan Murray, Padraic Cowman; Fionnan Ryan, Eamon McAndrew, Ryan O’Donoghue. Subs: Anthony Barrett (for McAndrew), Shay O’ Donoghue (for L Howard), Daithi Cosgrove (for Cowman).

Kilmeena: Paul Groden; Luke Durkan, John Kearns, John Ryan; Stephen Staunton, Jack Mulchrone, Colin Hastings; Jack Carney, Neil Duffy; Keith Joyce, Sean Ryder, Ronan O’ Donnell; Liam Moore, John McGlynn, Darragh Keaveney. Subs: Ciaran Kilcoyne (for O’ Donnell), Darragh Slattery (for Duffy), Kevin Ryder (for Joyce), Caolach Halligan (for Staunton), Tomás Gill (for J Ryan).

REF: Garryowen McMahon (Davitts)