Westport rescue late draw in Clogher
Ballintubber's Stephen O’Malley and Westport's Alan Kennedy tussle for possession in a rain soaked Clogher on Saturday evening. Picture: Tom Quinn
A late rally from Westport saw them overturn a seven-point deficit to rescue a share of the spoils against Ballintubber on Saturday evening at Ray Prendergast Memorial Park.
The hosts led by five at the break with wing-back Michael Plunkett stealing the show, scoring three times from outside the arc in the opening half. Cillian O’Connor gave Ballintubber the lead after 45 seconds and Stephen O’Malley then scored from play.
Plunkett hit the first of his trifecta to put Ballintubber four up with just two minutes played. Westport will have been grateful for Killian Kilkelly bringing his shooting boots to Clogher as he effectively kept them in the game in the first half, scoring his opener after four minutes.
Plunkett struck again, a carbon copy of his earlier effort before O’Connor scored from play to make it 0-7 to 0-1. Kilkelly scored a free and then set up Luke Tunney for another point. O’Connor scored another free before Westport began to make inroads. Alan Kennedy scored on the 20-minute mark before Kilkelly hit back-to-back scores, one from play and another from a free to cut the gap to two points.
Plunkett found space from range again and struck his third two-pointer of the half. Kilkelly responded before O’Connor’s free from well outside the arc made it a five-point game at half time.
Westport came out with a bit more edge and within 15 seconds of the restart, had forced Padraic O’Connor into making the save at point blank range. The shooter, Killian Kilkelly, had another bite and popped the ball over the bar this time.
Noel Geraghty responded before Pat Lambert popped over a point and goalkeeper Paddy O’Malley hit a 45 sweetly between the posts. Ballintubber looked well in the driving seat when they scored the next four points. Geraghty hit two more from play and then O’Connor added his sixth point of the game, a free kick. Stephen O’Malley’s second point of the evening made it a seven-point game coming into the final quarter.
Westport dug deep, however, and Luke Tunney sparked them into life with a massive, two-point effort that seemed to light a fire up under the Coveys. Colm Moran and Joe Grady cut the gap to just three points with further scores.
In the 57th minute substitute John Grady, who had emerged from the bench just three minutes prior, put the ball in the net and it was a tie game. Then Conor Calvey scored in the 59th minute, putting Westport in front for the first time all evening and suddenly Ballintubber were left to chase the game.
They did find an equaliser through a Ciaran Gavin free as the game ticked over into injury-time but the result will have come as a disappointment to Ballintubber considering the advantageous position they had been in with 15 minutes to play.
