O’Malley’s magic helps get ‘Tubber off to winning start

Mayo SFL Division 1B – Round 1 

Ballintubber 1-15 

Kilmeena 2-11 

Maggie Chambers at St Brendan’s Park, Kilmeena 

It was a league yet also a championship warm-up game for two teams who will meet in the group stages of the Moclair Cup in the summer and despite a Kilmeena surge, which saw them kick 2-4 in the final ten minutes, it was the visitors who claimed the victory in this opening round fixture, after an exhilarating game on Saturday evening.

Ballintubber were led by the outstanding Stephen O’Malley, who scored an impressive nine points.

The home side were first off the mark with Caoloch Halligan kicking a point, before Stephen O’Malley kicked two in succession in reply. Both teams were playing patient football, picking the right passes to get the ball into the scoring zone.

With six minutes played, the teams exchanged points through Halligan and O’Malley once again, as both sides looked to settle into the game. Another point from the superb Stephen O’Malley extended the visitors lead, however, after a string of wides for both sides, the game became stagnant, Ballintubber were dropping fourteen players behind the ball whenever Kilmeena were constructing an attack, making it difficult for the home side to mount a promising attack.

Ballintubber kicked three more points to extend their lead, to which Kilmeena’s John McGlynn responded with one of his own to leave the scoreline reading 0-7 to 0-3. Kilmeena, who will be hoping to build on their intermediate title breakthrough of last season, were struggling to convert their possession into scores, while Ballintubber were doing the simple things to perfection.

With 27 minutes played, O’Malley continued to shine as he kicked his fifth point of the first-half. McGlynn kicked a superb score for Kilmeena just before the half-time whistle but when the teams went in at the interval it was the visitors who were leading 0-8 to 0-4.

The second-half began in a similar trend as the first; Stephen O’Malley opened the second period with a superb point while Kilmeena responded with two of their own before their best goal opportunity of the game. Darragh Keaveney danced his way through the Ballintubber defence to find himself one-on-one with goalkeeper Brendan Walsh but was unable to find the back of the net and the momentum swung back in Ballintubber’s favour. O’Malley got himself on the scoresheet once again before the trusty left boot of Ciaran Gavin extended the lead further.

Kilmeena did respond with an excellent point from Caolach Halligan but then Ballintubber entered a purple patch, kicking two more points before landing the killer blow. With 47 minutes on the clock, after some excellent team play, Ciaran Gavin stepped up to rattle the back of the net which left the scoreline reading 1-13 to 0-7. There was a feeling around the ground that the game was as good as over, however, there was still one more twist in the tale.

The teams exchanged points but with a nine-point gap, it was going to be difficult for Kilmeena to construct any sort of comeback. Yet on 56 minutes John McGlynn kicked his fourth point of the day and two minutes later, up stepped Caolach Halligan who, after an impressive run, unleashed a powerful shot that found the back of Ballintubber’s net.

And then on the hour mark, it got even better for the West Mayo outfit as after some excellent work from captain Sean Ryder, Joey Smyth rolled the ball into the back of the opposition’s net to reduce the deficit to just two points.

The large crowd gathered in Kilmeena had come alive, urging their team on. However, substitute Matthew Fox managed to kick an insurance point for Ballintubber as despite Kilmeena’s best efforts, which included a point each from John McGlynn and Conor Kelly, the home side just ran out of time.

It was a well-deserved two points for Ballintubber and a brilliant taste of what is to come in the summer months.

Scorers – Kilmeena: Caoloch Halligan 1-4 (0-1f), John McGlynn 0-5 (2f), Joey Smyth 1-0, Conor Kelly and Darragh Keaveney 0-1 each.

Ballintubber: Stephen O’Malley 0-9 (2f), Ciaran Gavin 1-3 (0-2f), Matthew Fox, Jason Gibbons and Stephen Burke 0-1 each.

Kilmeena: Paul Groden; Keelan Corcoran, Rian Kilcoyne, John Ryan; Niall Feehan, Colin Hastings, Ben Lennon; Joey Smyth, Neil Duffy; Joshua Brown, Darragh Keaveney, Sean Ryder; Caoloch Halligan, John McGlynn, Darragh Slattery. Subs: Conor Kelly (for Browne 19), Ciaran Kilcoyne (for Corcoran 24), Daniel Kelly (for R Kilcoyne 46).

Ballintubber: Brendan Walsh; Stephen Burke, Stephen O’Malley, Gavin Murphy; David McHale, Ciaran Gavin, Jason Gibbons; Myles Kelly, Noel Geraghty; Jack Walsh, Alan Plunkett, Bryan Walsh; Joseph Geraghty, Jack Prendergast, Finian Bourke. Subs: John Kerrigan (for Prendergast ht), Conor Finnerty (for Kelly 46), Martin Fox (for Geraghty 52), Matthew Fox (for Plunkett 58), Gary Loftus (for Murphy 60).

REF: Christopher Burke (Hollymount/Carramore)