Ballinlough 0-13 Ballivor 0-13

Ballinlough made the trip to Ballivor for the second round of the Corn Na Boinne Cup, and once again we were without a few of our well known household names, so it was up to the younger men to make an impression, and Leaving Cert student Seán Tunney kicked things off in style with a sweet point off his left boot in the 2nd minute, which was quickly countered by an oddly numbered but equally impressive Brendan McKoen from Ballivor moments later.

Indeed the opening eight scores of the game were all superb long range efforts from play, with Fergal Gibney, Mick Geraghty and Harry Ryan(2) all pointing for the Lough, while the two McKeons kept the Ballivor scoreboard ticking over, Ballinlough holding a slender lead in the opening ten minutes on a score line of 0-5 to 0-04.

Then came the first big talking point in the game when Ballivor played a long high ball into nobody in particular and it became a race with Ballinlough keeper Podge Muldoon and Ballivors most forward man with both men pouncing at the same time, but with Podge adjudged to have taken down his counterpart illegally and the Referee flashed his notebook to send him to the Bin for ten minutes. The only saving grace was Podge ran such a distance to try and intercept that the foul was no-where near the penalty area so just a free kick was the adjoining punishment which was duly tipped over the bar!

That black card forced Manager Vincent Ryan into a re-think and he decided to take advantage of the fact 7 subs are allowed in Cup competitions , so he drafted in sub keeper Keith McGuinness to cover the goalmouth area, at the expense of Sean Tunney up front for the ten minutes, and despite the numerical disadvantage Ballinlough actually restored their lead with a well taken score from Tommy McCullen and Ballivor only managed two points of their own with the extra man.

To laud the reintroduction of Podge in the 23rd minute Harry Ryan sent over another massive point from play before Mick Geraghty got his second of the night in the 25th minute. Ballivor themselves had to then learn what it was like living with 14 men as midfielder Joe McLoughlin saw black for a trip on Fergal Gibney. Once again the extra man was not exactly in evidence as Ballinlough took the next score in the 27th minute, another Harry Ryan point from play, but that was as good as it got for the visitors in the opening half.  Ballivor on the other hand did well to pressurise Ballinlough into errors, their efforts rewarded in the 31st minute when Robbie Farrell momentarily forgot one of the newer rules, and played the ball back to the Keeper from a kick out, resulting in the referee reaching for his whistle for a free in. That free was tapped over to leave just the bare minimum between the sides going in for the half time chat, Ballinlough leading 0-09 to Ballivors 0-08.

Ballivor ended the half with a free and started the second half in the exact same fashion, this effort made much simpler when Referee Frank Scully brought the ball forward after a little bit of back-chat, something he was very consistent with for both sides throughout the game. Another Ballivor point in the 40th minute saw them take a one point lead but again that was quickly cancelled out with a Harry Ryan free, after Fergal Gibney shipped a fairly hefty challenge.

Ballinlough tipped the scales back in their favour in the 43rd minute when a well worked short free saw Collie Mallen get his name on the scoreboard, but again Ballivor hit back with a point of their own. From scoring four from play in the first half, Harry Ryan was accurate again from the placed ball in the 52nd minute as he put the Ballinlough noses slightly in front before the game was levelled up once again and who else only that elusive man No.16 Brendan McKoen, hitting another free in the 57th minute, an absolute superb effort from a tight angle on the wrong side of the pitch for a left footer.

From the resulting kick-out Ballivor secured possession in the middle of the park and within seconds they had a point more on the board as we entered the closing stages. There was cause for consternation amongst the Ballinlough Faithful as what looked a clear push on Harry Ryan as he was going through went unpunished in the 58th minute, but the referee redeemed himself when Ronzer McGuinness was brought down three minutes into injury time and this time the referee didn’t hesitate to blow the whistle, with Harry Ryan duly sending the ball over the bar to level the sides once more with time almost up.

There was one final chance for a winner when the restart was allowed to proceed, and while Ballinlough were fortunate to win possession, they struggled to get into a shooting position with time ticking away, so when he saw half a sight of the posts Tommy McCullen did what any good full-forward would do, and went for it but sadly his effort drifted narrowly wide and that was enough for the referee to bring the game to a close, a draw game on a score line of 0-13 apiece, which over the 60 minutes was probably a fair result for both sides.

There were chances to win the game tonight and also chances to lose, which is always the case in a drawn game, but once again Vincent Ryan will be happy with the level of the performance put in by his younger charges, another couple making their first team debuts tonight, against a recently promoted side full of hunger and drive, and if our lads keep putting in the effort it could very easily be rewarded come August and Championship time!

Ballinlough: P.Muldoon, L.Finnegan, R.Farrell, H.Briody, M.Geraghty(0-02), M.McCullen, D.Galligan, H.Ryan(0-07(3f)), L.Maguire, F.Gibney(0-1), D.Caffrey, B.Wiseman, S.Tunney(0-01), T.McCullen(0-01), C.Mallen(0-01)

Subs: K.McGuinness for S.Tunney 14th minute, S.Tunney for K.McGuinness 23rd minute, R.McGuinness for D.Galligan 31st minute, B.Jordan for B.Wiseman 38th minute, R.Ryan for S.Tunney 48th minute

Referee: Frank Scully

 

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