Ballinderry are Derry SFC winners once more after the Loup were beaten in a poor final. Ballinderry 2-11 Loup 0-09 It started in front of a huge crowd with a shrill blast of the whistle and it had some great passages of play, several great scores and one fantastic save. Unfortunately for the watching hundreds, the half-time mini-game then ended and Ballinderry and Loup retook the field to play out the second half of their tedious Senior Championship final. Still well in contention at the break, trailing by 1-04 to 0-04, Loup looked like they had another gear left as they began the second half with great purpose, Enda McQuillan's one-two and shot reducing the gap to just two points after the Shamrocks had contained their rivals well against a stiff breeze in the first half. Six minutes into the second half their hopes evaporated when corner-back John Young was dismissed following an off-the-ball incident involving Paul Wilson. In what was a tempestuous, niggly affair, the only surprise was that it took John Joe Cleary 36 minutes to produce the red card. He will undoubtedly have his critics in both camps but Cleary handled his first senior final very well considering that it was a very difficult game to referee. Players were hauling, dragging, pushing and, in some cases, wrestling with each other every time his back was turned, Martin Harney's jerseys completely shredded as the result of one skirmish for which he and Fionntan Devlin were yellow carded. Ballinderry had burst out of the traps and blitzed Loup for 1-02 inside the first seven minutes, Darren Conway fisting home at the far post four minutes in after Gilligan fisted invitingly across the face of goal. Gilligan had already grabbed the first of his six points in a man-of-the-match performance that also took him to the top of the championship scoring charts alongside Paddy Bradley. Most people's favourites before the game, Ballinderry's start was the last thing the neutrals wanted to see. They wanted Loup to get that start and make a real game of it instead of constantly playing catch-up from the first whistle. That was the hand they were dealt though and they made a decent fist of it in a fragmented first half, Ballinderry's spoiling tactics against the wind dragging Loup into a physical battle that they lost. Enda Muldoon came in for some rough treatment in particular but the former All-Star did a sterling job defensively while Niall McCusker showed glimpses of his true form at full-back. Shane McFlynn was kept very quiet and his frustration got the better of him at times, called up twice before he was booked in the twelfth minute. The middle of the field was so congested that clean catches were as common as hens' teeth, John O'Kane making one fantastic pluck in the second half the highlight in yet another Ballinderry-dominated sector. Loup's big players also failed to perform, Paul McFlynn picking up where he left off in the semi-final with an anonymous performance. Johnny McBride played in fits and starts and Joseph O'Kane was run ragged through the centre, though Enda McQuillan impressed with his intelligent running and accurate free-taking. Shane McGuckin's kickouts were massive but he let himself down on the second Ballinderry goal, dropping a ball at the feet of Darren Crozier who gleefully accepted the gift by tapping home from two yards. Ballinderry were much stronger in all areas of the pitch from Michael Conlon, who looked secure and alert, right up to Wilkinson. They out-battled their opponents, closing down the limited space very quickly and getting good ball towards Gilligan, although they did have a tendency to overplay the ball at times around half-back. The first half never got going such was the willingness to foul, stoppages briefly interrupted by football as opposed to the other way around. With the wind at their backs, Loup kicked six wides and only managed four points, a total most unlikely to stop the Shamrocks from prospering. After that poor start, they actually reduced the gap to a single point, 1-02 to 0-04, as Ballinderry incredibly went twenty-one minutes without a score, Gilligan ending that famine with a pointed free with two minutes to play before he unleashed a fantastic left-footed effort from along the sideline that re-established the three-point cushion heading towards the interval. As the wind grew stronger, Ballinderry did likewise but it was Loup who started the second half the brighter, McQuillan playing a 'give-n-go' with Mallon before striking over a fantastic point with his left foot. Both sides were guilty of wasteful finishing at stages over the sixty minutes, Loup's seven wides compared with Ballinderry's five, three of which came when the game was effectively over. Having seen the Junior and Intermediate finals follow a pattern in similar conditions, Loup's first half performance suggested that they were in bother. Drum came from six behind to win the Junior, while Foreglen couldn't quite claw back an eight-point deficit with the wind in their favour in the second-half. Unlike Lissan and Coleraine, Loup went in without even a lead, never mind a big one. The climb they faced became insurmountable when Young received his marching orders, three Gilligan points interrupted by one from Crozier, McQuillan keeping Loup ticking over with another free. Johnny McBride received the ball from his corner-forward and belted over from the left-wing, the gap down to four once more at 1-08 to 0-07 with three-quarters of the tie gone. That was as close as it got though as Martin McKindless' troops sped off into the Derry sunset on the back of Darren Crozier's goal. After a mind-numbing lull in an already uninspiring game, Shane McGuckin dropped a ball under no pressure, Gilligan flicking the ball to Crozier who duly killed the tie. With the 2002 champions 2-08 to 0-07 up, the fans flocked to the exits and they were wise to do so, the rest of us merely freezing waiting on the inevitable. Despite McQuillan's best efforts, including another pointed free, Brendan Conway pointing as the Loup players lost heart. The space afforded to Darren and James Conway for the final two scores was unreal, no Loup man within ten yards as they nonchalantly tapped points that didn't flatter their side in terms of the scoreline. Shane McFlynn offered meek consolation with a fantastic right foot point in injury-time, yet another final defeat for the Loup men already secured. When the last whistle finally went, it was to muted cheers and a half-hearted pitch invasion. Not exactly evoking memories of 2002 but Ballinderry are widely tipped as a possibility for the Ulster title. And, of course, Croke Park will open its doors on March 17th. On this showing, Ballinderry won't be there, but nor will they be far away and the possibilities are now endless, the dreamers getting some ammunition as the Shamrocks celebrate bringing the John McLaughlin Cup back to the Loughshore for the first time in four years, and the eleventh time in total. Ballinderry scorers: Conleth Gilligan 0-06 (0-04 frees), Darren Conway 1-01, Darren Crozier 1-01, James Conway, Martin Harney and Brendan Conway 0-01 each. Loup scorers: Enda McQuillan 0-05 (0-04 frees), Johnny McBride, Paul McFlynn (free), Gavin Mallon and Shane McFlynn 0-01 each. Ballinderry team: Michael Conlon; Kevin McGuckin, Niall McCusker, Darren Crozier; Paul Wilson, Ronan McGuckin, Michael McIver; James Conway, Sean Donnelly; Darren Conway, Conleth Gilligan, Martin Harney; James Bateson, Enda Muldoon, Raymond Wilkinson. Subs used: Colin Devlin for Martin Harney (46 mins); Brendan Conway for James Bateson (53 mins); Michael Muldoon for Raymond Wilkinson (59 mins). Yellow cards: Darren Crozier, Paul Wilson, Martin Harney and Enda Muldoon. Loup team: Shane McGuckin; John Young, Padraig O'Kane, Joseph Devlin; Aidan McAlynn, Joseph O'Kane, Fionntan Devlin; Johnny McBride, John O'Kane; Brendan McVey, Paul McFlynn, Gavin Mallon; Enda McQuillan, Shane McFlynn, Paul Young. Subs used: Fearghal McVey for Gavin Mallon (43 mins), Colum McVey for Padraig O'Kane (injured, 55 mins); Ciaran Hegarty for Fearghal McVey (59 mins). Yellow cards: Fionntan Devlin, Aidan McAlynn, Paul McFlynn and Shane McFlynn. Red card: John Young (36 mins). Referee: John Joe Cleary (Castledawson). Tweet

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