Ballinlough 1-14 Oldcastle 0-22

Ballinlough and Oldcastle met in a pitch perfect Moylagh on Saturday afternoon for this Div.7 Football League Final and it was the town team, playing with a decent wind at their backs who opened the scoring with two early points before Kit Óg Lynch got Ballinlough off the mark with a point from play in the third minute.

Oldcastle had settled into this game quicker though and hit the next four points before Ballinlough were to lose Podge Muldoon to a black card in the 14th minute. Another Oldcastle point in the 18th minute extended their lead to six points until Ballinlough finally got scoring again with a Harry Ryan point from play.

Further points were traded, Harry Ryan with an excellent free for Ballinlough in the 25th minute but two more points for Oldcastle stretched their lead as we headed for half time. There was one more chance for Ballinlough and Jamie Casserly will have wished his powerful close range shot stayed under the bar but he had to settle for the point instead, so when Referee Raymond Tynan blew the half time whistle Ballinlough trailed by six on a scoreline of 0-04 to Oldcastles 0-10.

From the restart Oldcastle went for the jugular only to be denied by a fine save from Alan Gibney, and the ball was worked quickly up the other end with a super ball from Mark McCullen finding Kit Óg Lynch and he fired to the net to cut the deficit in half and give Ballinlough a much needed boost.

Oldcastle hit back with a pointed free but Ballinlough were getting more joy in this half with good work from Ben Jordan, Josh Lynch and Louis Finnegan setting up Kit Óg Lynch for a nice point in the 36th minute.

An Oldcastle free in the 37th minute was cancelled out with two Harry Ryan scores to leave just two between the sides, and Ballinlough had a glorious chance to take the lead when Darren O’Higgins found himself in on goal, but his shot was well stopped by the Oldcastle netminder in the 42nd minute.

An Oldcastle point from play that just clipped in over the bar in the 45th minute extended their lead to three points but some fine defending from Ballinlough, in particular the evergreen Podge Muldoon, denied them any clear goal changes, and with Harry Ryan nailing two further frees for Ballinlough, the deficit was back to one by the 50th minute.

Another great goal chance for Ballinlough went abegging when Brandon Brunton failed to covert from close range and Oldcastle were able to scramble and clear their lines and go up the other end to hit another point for themselves.

That score was cancelled out when Jamie Casserly hit his second of the game and yet another goal chance for the men in red was squandered when Conor Rennicks was denied in the 55th minute… all these missed chances beginning to haunt Ballinlough.

Oldcastle were to finish with a numerical advantage when Kit Óg Lynch was given his marching orders for an off the ball incident but credit to Ballinlough they kept battling with great link up play from Benji Smith and Darren O’Higgins setting up Harry Ryan who fired over in the 60th minute and levelled the sides.

With plenty of injury time played both sides had chances to win it, Oldcastle denied by a terrific interception from Robbie Farrell to stop them getting a winner, and when the ball was worked forward to Darren O’Higgins he was felled to give Ballinlough a chance of kicking the winner themselves. Unfortunately despite being excellent on the placed ball all evening Harry Ryan did not connect well with his strike at all sending the ball wide of the posts and the chance was gone.

Shortly thereafter Referee Raymond Tynan blew the full time whistle, the sides level on a score line of Ballinlough 1-11 to Oldcastles 0-14 and we headed for extra time.

Like the start of the first half Oldcastle started brightly hitting the first three scores to lead after five minutes, but Ballinlough finished the first period of extra time better with Harry Ryan converting two frees to leave just one in it again.

While there no further scores of the half there was more significant moments as both sides lost a man to red cards for second bookable offences, Robbie Farrell for Ballinlough and Darren Hawdon for Oldcastle both shown the line by Referee Raymond Tynan, Ballinlough now down to 13 men.

Finding themselves both a point and a man down Ballinlough had to work extremely hard at this late stage of the game and the sides were levelled when Harry Ryan converted another free in the 72nd minute that came off the upright and over the bar.

It is really quite unbelievable how Ballinlough only scored one goal in this game as yet another chance came in the 74th minute when Harry Ryan played a long ball in with Mark McCullen inside hoping to get that pivotal touch to send the ball goalwards, but he was desperately unlucky to see his effort skim off the outside of the post and away from danger.

With tired minds and bodies beginning to show, the experience of the Intermediate side began to show as Oldcastle coped better with the fatigue and rattled off five scores in as many minutes to leave themselves leading comfortably when Referee Raymond Tynan blew the full time whistle, the scoreline reading Oldcastle 0-22 to Ballinlough’s 1-14.

So Oldcastle took the win and the Cup but Manager Jonnie Reilly can be very proud of his teams efforts throughout the campaign and it just wasn’t to be our day today.

After the game the lads regrouped in Crossakiel and we would like to thank Jonnie and Andrew Reilly of ADL for kindly sponsoring food which was brilliantly prepared and served up by Angela McCabe and went down a treat after what was a tough defeat.

Next up for Ballinlough is the Division 4 League Final on Tuesday evening and the lads will be hoping to right some wrongs and get over the line the next day.

Ballinlough Team: A.Gibney, R.Farrell, P.Muldoon, B.Jordan, L.Finnegan, L.Maguire, J.Lynch, M.McCullen, D.Galligan, N.McDonnell, H.Ryan(0-10(7f)), J.Smith, B.Brunton, K.Óg Lynch(1-02), J.Casserly(0-02)

Subs: C.Rennicks for D.Galligan 20’, B.Smith for J.Smith H/T, D.O’Higgins for N.McDonnell H/T, M.Farrell for J.Lynch 56’, J.Lynch for L.Maguire 71’, R.McGuinness for C.Rennicks 74’

Tweet

Most Read Stories