Ballinlough 2-11 St.Vincents 2-03

St.Vincents made the long trip to Ballinlough on a bitter cold morning where everyone was expecting snow, but were greeted with glorious sunshine. 

Vincents had the benefit of a significant breeze in the first half but while they played with the wind Ballinlough played with the ball and went 04 points to no score up inside the first 15 minutes, with the returning Peader Byrne on target from 3 frees and Simon Deevy scoring from play. 

Vincents finally got on the scoreboard with a shot to nothing against the run of play, and perhaps Rasher Muldoon should have got a better hand to it but the ball ended up in the Ballinlough net. Beginning to find their feet they added two further points from play to put themselves in front, but Ballinlough kept attacking against a stiff breeze with Mick Geraghty hitting a lovely point from play. Then came the twist in the 27th minute with St.Vincents on the attack, another returning veteran, Ronan McGuinness intercepted brilliantly and played a lovely ball to Peader Byrne, who in turn laid off to Simon Deevy. For his part Deevy played a nice low ball into Benji Smith who finished calmly to the Vincents net. Tommy McCullen added another fine point from play to leave the advantage with the hosts at half time taking a 1-06 to 1-02 lead in at the break. 

Ballinlough started the second half strongly and in the first minute Ronan McGuinness decided to test the strength of the breeze with a massive long range effort. Maybe afterwards he’ll claim he meant it, but the ball dropped on the goal line catching the Vincents keeper unawares and settled softly into the back of the net. Mick Geraghty added two more points to his tally either side of a beauty of a point from Simon Deevy, he’ll be hard pressed to score one like it again!!

St.Vincents finally got of the mark in the second half in the 44th minute with a point from play but struggling against the breeze, they failed to break down a solid Ballinlough defensive unit. Mattie Farrell, Robbie Farrell and Emmet Smyth forced plenty of turnover ball but Ballinlough were wasteful in attack, possibly thinking they had the job done at this stage.

Tommy McCullen scored another point on the 53rd minute to put the Lough 10 points in front. A minute later St.Vincents had a free from a very scorable position, and sensing a goal was needed they opted to go short and work the ball in which had the desired effect when the ball somehow found its way past Dereck Muldoon to lower the deficit to 7.

It was to be the last score for the Vincents however and when Jonnie Reilly scored one of his trademark scores in the 57th minute it was game over. The snow began to fall with the last few minutes to play and when referee Gus Martyn blew up on 62 minutes, there was an audible sigh of relief from the Ballinlough Faithful who stuck it out alongside their team. Final score in Ballinlough was Ballinlough 2-11, St.Vincents 2-03. 

Next up for Ballinlough is an away game v Kilmainham in a couple of weeks time. 

Ballinlough scorers: P.Byrne 0-3(3f), M.Geraghty 0-3, B.Smith, R.McGuinness, 1-0 each, S.Deevy, T.McCullen 0-2 each, J.Reilly 0-1

Ballinlough: D.Muldoon, P.Muldoon, E.Smyth, R.Farrell,M.Farrell, L.Maguire, J.Reilly, M.Geraghty, T.McCullen,M.McCullen, R.McGuinness, P.Briody, B.Smith,S.Deevy, P.Byrne

Subs: D.Cafferry for M.McCullen H/T, J.Lynch for P. Briody 50mins, Junior Reilly for R.McGuinness 52mins, C.Briody for S.Deevy 53mins, N.McDonnell for P.Muldoon 57mins.

 

Scorers: P.Byrne 03pts(3f), M.Geraghty 03pts, B.Smith, R.McGuinness, 1-0 each, S.Deevy,T.McCullen 02pts each, J.Reilly 01pt

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