Town turn on style to book route to final
Action in the Ballina Town goalmouth during last Saturday's Mayo U21 Cup semi-final against home side Conn Rangers. Pictures: John Corless
Ballina Town are through to the CMR Fire and Security Under 21 ‘A’ Cup Final against Castlebar Celtic, with a comfortable win over Conn Rangers last Saturday afternoon.
Given the rain and the melting snow, the Mount Falcon pitch was in great order, which was just as well, because both sides played a lot of quality, attacking football, along the ground.
Rangers were on top for most of the first-half but were unable to make it count until Tadgh O’Sullivan put JP Collins through, to put them in front after 36 minutes. This was their first clear chance. O’Sullivan, Oran Timlin and Keelan Jordan had shots over or wide, and what looked like a good chance for Mark McMahon, from Jordan’s corner, wasn’t really, as the ball was moving away from him diagonally and he couldn’t connect.
Conn went in front after a spell of dominance with Ajay McGrath and O’Sullivan ruling the middle and Keelan Jordan and Oran Timlin threatening on the wings and up front. But then, instead of building on the lead, or even tightening up to hold to the interval, Conn Rangers were caught a minute later when man of the match, Sam Monaghan, fired home from Tiernan Tighe’s pass. The goal changed the match, as goals often do. Had Rangers been able to take their lead to the dressing-room, or add another before the break, they might be in the final.
The second-half was a different story. Ballina moved players positionally in the middle and pressed Rangers. The change paid dividends after two minutes when Mathew Cowan got on the end of a ball over the top, and drove the ball past Anthony Howley, the Rangers goalkeeper.
Town were hungrier and sharper than Rangers in the second-half, and when Daire O’Connor finished Sam Monaghan’s corner after Rangers failed to clear, with 20 minutes remaining, the game had slipped away from the Knockmore men.
To make matters worse for Rangers, Town were awarded a penalty when Thomas Burke fouled Matthew Cowan in the box, and the impressive striker, got up, placed the ball on the spot and drove it to the ’keeper’s right, to make it 1-4.
Collins, who played well all day for Conn, got a spectacular second, near the end, to reduce the margin, but it made no difference to the outcome.
“We started very poorly, really,” Sam Monaghan told the . “Once they scored we got a wake-up call, we got back into it straight away. We were a lot better in the second-half and I thought everyone played really well. We had a good work-rate throughout the second-half. We had been sitting off them too much in the first-half, but we got more intensity in the press in the second and moved the ball forward quicker.” Town manager Aidan Cowan said Conn Rangers were hard to break down in the first-half.
“We had a slow start,” he said. “We were playing the ball too slowly and playing it back too much, and they caught us. We were lucky to get the goal back straight away after they scored. We made a few positional changes at half-time and we took control of the middle. We were more direct in the second-half and we created a lot more chances.” Brendan McDonagh, the Conn Rangers manager, said he was disappointed with the outcome.
“It was a game of two halves,” he said. “In the first-half we had three or four chances that we didn’t convert. The difference was, in the second-half, they got about five chances and they converted four of them. That’s cup football. We went out of it a bit in the second-half in midfield and that allowed Ballina to get more control on the game. We didn’t press them enough in the second-half and it cost us.”
Sam Monaghan and Matthew Cowan were excellent for Ballina Town, but they had excellent performances all over the park. They played with great energy in the second half and Conn Rangers were unable to keep with them.
O’Sullivan and Collins were excellent for Rangers and they too had a lot of solid performances, but the second-half surge overwhelmed them and they got caught too, with balls going in over the top. Conceding immediately after taking the lead, didn’t help either.
Conn Rangers: Anthony Howley, Daniel Breslin, Mark McMahon, Brian Durkan, Thomas Bourke, Ajay McGrath, Tadgh O’Sullivan, Keith Langan, JP Collins, Keelan Jordan, Oran Timlin.
Ballina Town: Daniel Cowan, Peadar Carr, Daire O’Connor, Matthew Quinn, Alex Monaghan, Oran Canavan, Cathair Tighe, Tiernan Tighe, Sam Monaghan, Matthew Cowan, Leon Geraghty. Subs: Peter Sheridan, Jack Gilmartin, Matthew Jackson, Jack O’Brien.
REF: Alan English
