Murray the master as Stephenites show their class
Garrymore’s Mark Gibbons takes on Luke Jordan of Ballina Stephenites during the Mayo SFL Division 1 tie last Saturday evening. Pictures: David Farrell Photography
Football is at its core a simple game. The team that takes the majority of their chances usually emerges victorious, and that was certainly the case at sun-drenched Garrymore on Saturday. Ballina Stephenites were much more clinical and deservedly made it back-to-back wins in their opening two rounds of this year’s senior league campaign.
This game entertained right from the start, with some excellent scores throughout. But all the talk afterwards was about the exhibition of shooting by Ballina midfielder Mikey Murray, who finished with six points from play, each one better than the previous. If there was a Man of the Match presentation, there would have been little debate. Quite simply, Murray dictated the terms of engagement in every way.
Disciplined in the tackle, protecting possession, sealing the central corridor effectively and surging forward when the time came, Murray kicked four of his points in the opening half alone. Garrymore never threw in the towel and were in fact level with just ten minutes to go, but it was here in this period that the visitors pulled away with that little bit of class telling in the end.
“Let’s be honest, it was a really tough game from start to finish. Garrymore, as we knew they would, really came at us. We were put under a lot of pressure,” Ballina manager Niall Heffernan told the afterwards.
“Parts of that performance this evening we were happy with, parts we wouldn’t be happy with. We felt the goals we conceded were sloppy on our behalf.
“Not taking anything away from their finishing, but I felt our defending wasn’t that good and allowed Garrymore too much space, and they hurt us in that first-half,” said Heffernan who described his team’s display as “professional overall”.
“We needed to grind it out and get the scores. We got them, but had to work hard to get that crucial breaking ball, which we began to lose a lot of late on in the first-half.”
The county champions trailed 2-4 to 0-8 at the break and yet everyone would agree that Garrymore were probably not the best team in the opening half. Two wonderfully taken goals by Aaron Hughes and Colin Commins, particularly Hughes’ high finish to the net, were the main pluses for Garrymore.
Roscommon native Andrew Glennon kicked two of Garrymore’s opening half points, one a free and the other from play, while Darren Quinn and Liam Horkan also got off the mark. All Ballina’s points were from play, with the outstanding Mikey Murray kicking four of these, as Patrick Carr, Frank Irwin, Liam Golden and Conor McStay also raised the white flag.
While Garrymore did go three up early in the second-half with another free by Andrew Glennon, from here on the tide began to change. Ballina were now winning a huge percentage of the loose balls around centre-field and a wonderful two-point free by Patrick Carr was followed by a leveller point from Dylan Thornton, his first of the day.
Both sides shared the next four points, and the sides were level, 2-7 to 0-13, with just 10 minutes remaining. But once Patrick Carr hit over his second two-point free eight minutes from time, Ballina never looked back. They kicked three further points late on from Ciarán Treacy, Frank Irwin (his third from play) and who other than Mikey Murray, with his sixth, to seal victory.
Substitute Mark Gibbons and defender Colin Commins kept Garrymore in touch with scores, but it was too little too late on this particular evening.
“Overall, I’d be happy enough,” concluded Niall Heffernan. “We had three or four new young lads playing with us who were really stepping up to the mark. Oisín McCann came on for his first game there in the last ten minutes, won a couple of balls for us inside and gave us energy. Michael Caden came on also at wing-back, gave us energy also, won a great kickout, so that’s very pleasing in the bigger scheme of things for the year ahead.”
Scorers – Ballina Stephenites: Mikey Murray 0-0-6, Patrick Carr 0-2-1 (2tpf), Frank Irwin 0-0-3, Liam Golden, Conor McStay, Dylan Thornton and Ciarán Treacy 0-0-1 each.
Garrymore: Colin Commins 1-0-1, Andrew Glennon 0-0-4 (3f), Aaron Hughes 1-0-0, Darren Quinn 0-0-2, Liam Horkan and Mark Gibbons 0-0-1 each.
Garrymore: Brian Lynskey; Alan Commins, David Dolan, Colin Commins; Conor Lydon, Liam Horkan, Patrick Hession; Aaron Hughes, Kenneth Lydon; Michéal Connolly, Andrew Glennon, Bobby Walsh; Darren Quinn, Trevor Nally, Adam Gallagher. Subs: Cathal Slattery (for Connolly 26), Mark Gibbons (for Nally 51), Michéal Connolly (for Gallagher 54), Shane Nally (for Walsh 60).
Ballina Stephenites: Eoghan Coleman; James Doherty, Luke Jordan, Liam Golden; Ciarán Boland, Barry Walsh, Niall Feeney; Mikey Murray, Dylan Thornton; Frank Irwin, Conor McStay, Luke Feeney; Patrick Carr, Ciarán Treacy, Matthew Leonard. Subs: Oisín McCann (for Leonard 54), Michael Caden (for N Feeney 56).
REF: Frank Flynn (Aghamore)
