Ballivor 2-11 Moynalvey 3-3

Sunday was a very special occasion in Ballivor as it was likely the last time that a game would be played on the historic pitch in the village. The new pitch is ready to go for the beginning of the league later this month which bodes exciting times ahead for the club. The guests for the day were Moynalvey in the Corn na Boinne and it had all the signs of being a very interesting encounter with the winner on the day guaranteed to progress to the semi-final of the cup. Both teams had banked sizeable victories against Longwood in the earlier rounds of the group.

On paper this game would have been fast, end to end and high scoring but games aren’t played on paper. This doesn’t mean that it wasn’t an entertaining match. The going was soft and led to plenty of mistakes, tired legs and big hits.

Ballivor in their alternate green jersey went a point up courtesy of Adam Gannon. Moynalvey in their alternate white jersey pulled it back a minute later with a pointed free, and then went ahead with a point from play as we approached the tenth minute.

The hosts began to grab a hold of the game with a brace of points from Adam Gannon and Paddy Conneely. The lead was then doubled when a David Conneely shot was blocked on the line, but the rebound was finished by Conal Diggins. Exactly like Meath did against Roscommon last week, Ballivor won the resulting kick out, drove forward and hit the net again for their second goal in less than 30 seconds. David Conneely the creator once more found Billy Birmingham in the square and Billy buried it past the keeper.

Moynalvey gave themselves a lifeline just before the break when a Ballivor defensive error was punished by a goal for the visitors. Adam Gannon closed off the half with his fourth point of the half.

Half-time Ballivor 2-6 Moynalvey 1-2

There weren’t many scores to start the second half, but Ballivor did keep control and looked the stronger team on the day. Points from Paddy Conneely and two frees from Brendan McKeon left the gap at 10 points with 10 minutes to go.

To their credit Moynalvey never gave up and scored 2-1 unanswered to bring the game back to a 3-point margin and a nail-biting finish.

Ballivor regrouped from their poor couple of minutes and points from Richie Sherrock and Keith Keoghan sealed the win by 5 points.

These two will meet again in the first round of championship and I’m sure neither will look too deeply into this game but it’s Ballivor who will be delighted to march on to the semi-final and still be in with a shout of early season silverware. The semi-final will be on Wednesday evening in Stamullen against St. Pats.

It was a fitting goodbye to a great pitch which served the community for nearly 100 years and produced so many exceptional footballers for the club and county.

Ballivor: Thomas Raleigh, Noah Doyle, Mark Healy, Ronan Comey, Conal Diggins (1-0), David Raleigh, Billy Birmingham (1-0), Kevin Mckeon, Keith Keoghan (0-1), Gary Sherrock, Patrick Conneely (0-3), David Conneely, Killian Canavan, Brendan McKeon (0-2), Adam Gannon (0-4)

Subs: Ciaran Browne, Richie Sherrock (0-1), Podge Geoghegan

Tweet

Most Read Stories