Ballinlough 2-06 St.Colmcilles 1-08

Ballinlough made the relatively short trip to Kilmainham for this years Divison 4 Minor Championship Final, and although there were a few mutterings before throw in, that the game should have still being in Pairc Tailteann, our lads just got on with the task at hand and weren’t too bothered where they were kicking ball.

Jamie Casserly opened proceedings with a fine point in the second minute, before St.Colmcilles hit back with a point of their own. Casserly was to be accurate again in the 8th minute, after some great build up play by Sean Tunney. There was then some wonderful link up play between the Casserly brothers with Jamie finding the younger of the two Brían, in space in front of goal. Brían did very well to hold onto the ball and the Colmcilles defender had no option but to bring him to ground, giving referee Peter Skelly a simple decision of awarding the penalty to Ballinlough. Up stepped Harry Ryan, and calm as you like he finished to the net to leave the Lough four points to the good, against the breeze with 12 minutes played. Ryan pushed the lead out to five points with a point from play in the 15th minute and Ballinlough were putting every Colmcilles attacker under pressure at this stage. The intensity and physicality was immense as our half forwards were some of our best defenders, constantly hassling and harrying the men in navy blue when out of possession to ensure there was no easy scores coughed up.

The Colmcilles management decided they needed to look to their bench for inspiration and it was an inspired move indeed, because one young man was only on the field of play a matter of seconds before he rifled the ball to the back of the net, to bring Colmcilles right back into the game. It was an absolute rocket of a shot that no keeper on the planet would have stopped and it reduced the deficit back to two points. People talk about resilience and coping when you concede a goal, well the best reaction is to go up and score one of your own and that’s exactly what Ballinlough did moments after Senan McDermott picked the ball out of his net. From the restart Senan found his little brother Oisin, who had to work very hard to maintain possession, but when he finally slipped his man, he played a superb ball into the full forward line. Daire Shine was the quickest man to react as the ball dropped just short of his fingertips, but he got a touch just before the advancing keeper and the ball bounced its way into the back of the net, to restore Ballinlough’s five point lead in the 22nd minute. But that goal seemed to be abit of a wake up call for St.Colmcilles and they rattled off the next three scores without reply, all from play, and one effort in particular was goal bound only for the reflexes of Senan McDermott to send it over the bar. Jamie Casserly concluded the half with a point from play, after Kit Óg Lynch and Oisin McDermott combined well to set him up, and with that score referee Peter Skelly blew the half time whistle, with the Lough maintaining a lead of three points on a score line of 2-04 to 1-04.

To say the second half of this match was bizarre would be an understatement. Colmciles came out fighting from the minute the whistle was sounded and hit three points in as many minutes to bring the sides level. Harry Ryan got Ballinlough scoring again in the 36th minute with a free before it was cancelled out with the Cilles hitting their fourth point of the half in the 41st minute. Harry Ryan was again accurate from a free in the 42nd minute to give the Lough a one point advantage. I didn’t know it at the time but that was to be the last score of the game and effectively the winning point. Now when you think almost 20 minutes of this game passed without a score you’d be forgiven for thinking the second half wasn’t great, but by God St.Colmcilles threw absolutely everything at us including the kitchen sink, but somehow our lads kept the ball out. It was real backs to the wall defending from Ballinlough with 14 men behind the ball, and at times the goal mouth area was more akin to a pin ball machine as the ball bounced off one man and on to another with nobody entirely sure of where it was going to end up.

What we are all sure of though is only for Senan McDermott in the Ballinlough net this could have been a very different result. I actually lost count of the number of saves he pulled off in the dying moments but someone told me afterwards it was at least 47 !!!! Every single Ballinlough player got back and dug deep to repel the Colmcilles attack and it was real heart in the mouth kind of football with each man throwing himself at the ball to prevent heartbreak for his club whilst his opposite number tried to find a way through.After what seemed like an eternity Peter Skelly finally blew the full time whistle to scenes of absolute mayhem from the Ballinlough Faithful. This was a first Minor Championship title for the club in 16 years, in fact one of the men at the helm of this team this year was one of the star players at Minor level the last time the Cup was brought to Ballinlough, whilst the man who was in charge in 2003 had a son of his own out on the field today !!! (That’s just abit of knowledge for John Jordan!!)

We made the decision earlier this year to go out on our own and play in the Ballinlough Jersey once again, not really knowing where the path would take us, and honestly there was probably a few waiting for us to fail. But what nobody took into account was the absolute pride and passion these young men have for their club, and what it means to them to play for Ballinlough. And it is because of that commitment that we have ended the year winning the double, a Summer League Cup and now a Minor Championship. When we travelled to Donore back in early July and got hammered in our first game it would have been so easy for the lads to quit, and no-one would have blamed them. But they didn’t they came back and worked hard, and it is astonishing to think we haven’t lost a single game since that day. They have just gone from strength to strength with every game, and there was some tough opponents along the way, but each time our boys passed the test with flying colours.I know for any club to win is special, but honestly with the way things went this year, you have no idea how proud and delighted I am for this group of players, their mentors and their parents. You are the future of our club, and you have given us all something to look forward to, so thank you and enjoy the celebrations because you truly deserve every accolade coming your way. 

Ballinlough: S.McDermott, S.Ryan, B.Jordan, R.Cunning, T.Shine, J.Connell, H.Briody, S.Tunney, H.Ryan(1-03) E.Briody, J.Casserly(0-03), O.McDermott, D.Shine(1-00), B.Casserly, K.Óg Lynch, J.McDonnell, M.Farrelly, J.Ryan, S.Rooney

Referee: Peter Skelly

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