St. Michaels 1-11, Ballinabrackey 2-11

Two goals, one in each half fired Ballinabrackey into the last eight of the Meade Potato Co Intermediate championship as they saw off the challenge of St. Michaels in the final round of Group B in Trim on Sunday afternoon. 

The eventual victors were just about the stronger side throughout and led from the second minute, but they were made to work for their win as the Michaels lads gained the momentum in the second period mainly through the work efforts of Paddy Clarke and Matthew Halpin around the middle third when they went two points in front after outscoring their opponents by 1-4 to 0-1 in the third quarter. 

Both sides traded 2 points apiece in the opening six minutes with the Brack's first off the mark in the second minute. Ciaran Lynch converted his sides two opening frees before his third, a great effort from play put his side in front near the end of the opening quarter, however that lead was short lived as the Brack's won their own kick-out and cancelled out Lynch's point. Darren O'Connell pulled off a couple of good saves to keep his side in the game as Ballinabrackey took charge of the game posting 1-2 to St. Michaels 0-1 in the second quarter to lead by 4 points at the break, 1-5 to 0-4.

St. Michaels started the new half with intent, getting two quick points as Ciaran Lynch posted the opener, which was quickly followed by a good effort from Ray Reilly after some great work by Ben Reilly to reduce the deficit to just two points after 33 minutes. The Brack's pulled one back, however Lynch and Shane McCormack pointed to leave it a one point game on 39 minutes. Paddy Clarke was doing trojan work around the middle of the park and his efforts paid off with a long delivery into the Brack's square which resulted in a bit of a scramble by several players which ended in referee Richard Morris blowing for a penalty in favour of St. Michaels, this was duly dispatched to the net by Shane McDonnell on 43 minutes.

Ballinabrackey pulled one back, Lynch converted a free following a foul on Ray Reilly, then came the turning “point” ( excuse the pun ), a Ballinabrackey effort was waved wide by the umpire standing under the post that the ball had just skimmed wide only for the umpire on the far post to wave it as a point much to the disbelief of all those standing along the dressingroom side of the Trim pitch, following consultation with his umpires Richard Morris instructed the white flag be raised and St. Michaels lead was cut to a single point.

The Brack's won Darren O'Connell's resultant kick-out and 30 seconds later he was picking the ball from the back of his net as his side had to begin playing catch-up again. This set-back drained the energy out of the St. Michaels lads and in a three minute spell Ballinabrackey went from one point down to four points in front. Ray Reilly posted a point for the Michaels which was cancelled out immediately by the Brack's who began playing “keep ball” to run down the clock. Shane McCormack sent over from a free to complete the scoring with 4 minutes plus injury time left on the clock. 

St. Michaels: Darren O'Connell; Ciaran O'Reilly, Sam Briody, Ben Reilly; Harry Dunne, Mark Stafford, Ronan Lynch; Matthew Halpin, Paddy Clarke; Shane McCormack (0-2), Paddy Tobin, Shane McDonnell (1-0); Christopher Drew, Ray Reilly (0-3), Ciaran Lynch (0-6). Subs: A. Reilly for Dunne 30 minutes, K. Cassidy for R. Lynch 50 minutes, C. Sheridan for Tobin 57 minutes.                                                                                                                  

Referee: Richard Morris. .

Report and photo Pascal Reilly PRO.

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