Mitchels goal down spirited Stephenites
Castlebar Mitchels had four different goalscorers against Ballina Stephenites, including Neil Douglas.
Castlebar Mitchels head into the Division 1 final in good form after a fantastic battle with Ballina Stephenites who applied heavy pressure on the visitors in the closing stages. Four first-half goals were the real difference though as Mitchels had built up a lead which the home side couldn’t quite get themselves over.
Kevin Newell was the first name in the scoring ledger as the Stephenites corner-forward converted a free. Midfielder Mike Murray quickly followed up with the second point after full-forward Luke Feeney fed a handpass back to him, having collected a kickpass into the right corner of the field. Murray then made it a brace for himself when Ciaran Boland collected the kickout from Gary Holmes, turning he offloaded to centre-forward Conor McStay and then to Murray, who put the ball over the black spot with a bit of curl. Paddy Heneghan got Mitchels on the board when he turned after taking the ball in, driving close to goal on the right he pointed with help from the left post.
Steve Keane cut the gap to one, making it a sign of things to come the diminutive wing-forward wreaked havoc in the first half. Newell doubled the advantage once again for Ballina after Murray set up the point with a driving run from the middle of the park, linking with Aodhan McCann before setting up McStay. Entering the 12th minute of the game, Mitchels scored their first of four goals as Conor Stenson linked up with Heneghan on the break, and as Heneghan bore down on the Stephenites goal he returned the ball to Stenson who palmed it into the empty net.
McStay’s first point as he danced between two Mitchels defenders settle the arrears and level the home side, and they led through a Feeney mark once he caught Newell’s long ball in. Neil Douglas then doubled the goals and put the away side in front once more, as Keane spun the Ballina full-back Luca Duggan and hand passed across the goal for the aforementioned Douglas to punch home. Stenson got a point go with his goal after a mark, and the rampant Mitchels got goal number three through Donnacha McHugh after a flowing hand-pass move within the Ballina penalty area. Keane was the fourth and final goalscorer for Mitchels after another spin by a Ballina defender, and coming across the goal he blasted the ball past Holmes into the left-hand side. Padraig O’Hora replied but was cancelled out by Conor Mulroy and teams went into the break separated by nine, in favour of the visitors.
Padraig O’Hora started the second half in the home sides favour, dummying the shot moving to his left and then firing over in space. Ethan Gibbons converted a free he won himself 20 metres from goal on the Mitchels left. Bob Tuohy saw a black card to spark some hope in the Stephenites camp as he brought down Mike Murray as he was clear through on goal, and McStay duly pointed after the offence. Ballina got three of the games next four points, but Mitchels continued to do just enough to weather their storm, keeping the advantage they worked so hard for in the first half. Neil Douglas added to this lead after Steve Keane hit a shot-come-pass from the left, it hung in the air and on the far side Douglas collected and sent the ball on its way for a point on the turn. Ciaran Boland and Conor McStay had the lead down to five, but Jack O’Reilly on the run close to goal centrally brought it back to a two-goal distance between Mitchels and Ballina.
A moment of pure magic from Padraig O’Hora kept the flames of hope burning for Ballina Stephenites as he carried the ball from his own half deep into Mitchels territory. The lack of passing options kept the county star driving in one direction, towards goal. He beat a total of four opposing players through a mixture of feints and pure pace and power before slotting into the bottom right corner, elating the home crowd and shortening the deficit to three points. However, one last point from away substitute James Durcan wrapped up the result and killed all hopes of a Stephenites fight back.
