Ballinlough 0-09 Dunsany 0-10

Ballinlough and Dunsany met in perfect conditions in Cortown on Friday night for this much anticipated Junior Football Championship Quarter Final with a minutes silent impeccably observed before throw in, in memory of Shirley Smith, sister of Ballinlough player Benji Smith, who passed away in America last weekend.

With both sides home kit’s clashing a change of colour was needed with Ballinlough donning their White strip while Dunsany opted for Navy blue as their alternative, and it was the Dunsany men who started brightest with points from Declan Smyth and James Cahill either side of a couple of early Ballinlough efforts that just drifted wide of the posts.

Harry Ryan finally got the Lough men motoring with a point from play in the eight minute following great work from Seanie Geraghty, Mark McCullen and the livewire Darren O’Higgins.

Dunsany’s talismanic centre forward Eoin Harkin had the chance to extend their lead but he sent the ball wide of the posts as he was well marshelled by Eoin Briody, the young Ballinlough man fast becoming the Go-To man for man-marking duties against inter-county opposition.

A Daire Shine free in the tenth minute levelled the sides before Ballinlough took the lead a moment later, Robbie Farrell carrying out Trojan work to overturn the kick-out and feed the ball forward to Harry Ryan who slotted over on his left foot to give Ballinlough a one point lead.

A potential goal chance for Dunsany in the 12th minute was excellently blocked down by Conor Fleming and from that effort the Dunsany forwards suffered their own version of the jitters as they sent three efforts wide of the posts in as many minutes to leave Ballinlough leading.

The men in Navy finally made one stick when centre back Harry Cahill drifted forward and chipped a lovely point over in the 15th minute.

With Darren O’Higgins hauled down every time he attacked the Dunsany goal area, the responsibility fell to Daire Shine to convert the resulting frees, and he did so with aplomb, hitting one in the 17th and 21st minute, Dunsany with a Declan Smyth point from play in between to leave one point still between the sides.

A certain looking point for Dunsany was rescued off the bar by the sturdy Alan Gibney in the Ballinlough net, but there was nothing he could do to stop the Dunsany free that went over his head in the 28th minute to level the sides.

Another Dunsany free just before half time gave them the lead so when Referee Paddy Clarke blew the half time whistle Ballinlough trailed on a scoreline of 0-05 to Dunsanys 0-06.

Upon the restart Ballinlough levelled the sides immediately with Conor Fleming working brilliantly to overturn the lost throw up, and work the ball inside where the marauding Jack Connell found himself in space and fired over for Ballinlough in the 31st minute.

Dunsany quickly restored their lead with an Eoin Harkin free in the 34th minute and doubled that lead with a point from play in the 43rd minute, which came after a period of poor football from both sides with nothing of note worth writing about.

Daire Shine lowered the deficit with a pointed free in the 44th minute but Dunsany kicked on, finally hitting two points in a row by the 49th minute to give themselves a three point lead.

Despite Ballinlough’s best efforts and their necessity to get scores on the board with Mark McCullen now deployed in the full forward line, nothing was sticking as the Dunsany defence held firm to deny any clear cut goal chances for the Ballinlough men.

With several injuries and stoppages of time Ballinlough knew there was still an opportunity to take something from this game and when Daire Shine was awarded a free in the 63rd minute, he slotted over to leave two points between the sides.

With a full squeeze now on the Dunsany kick-out, possession was secured again and with Darren O’Higgins driving forward it was inevitable another free was coming Ballinlough’s way and after a brief chat with Referee Paddy Clarke, Daire Shine must have got the nod that there was still time left as he tipped the ball over the bar to leave just one between the teams.

With the next kick-out Ballinlough didn’t win it and Dunsany were awarded a free in from distance, but Eoin Harkins effort dropped short into the hands of Alan Gibney.

Despite a significant period of added time already played we assumed there would be one last chance for Ballinlough when the whistle didn’t immediately sound, but after Alan came out and played the ball forward it was then at that moment Referee Paddy Clarke decided that was that and blew the full time whistle, Dunsany taking the win on a scoreline of 0-10 to Ballinloughs 0-09.

A disappointing end to the Season for our lads, who picked themselves up after a poor opening round display to battle back and earn their place in the knock out stages, but their efforts just fell short of being enough to progress to the Semi-Final stage.

A special thank you to Manager Ken Rothwell for all his work throughout the year, alongside his selectors Ronan McGuinness, Keith McGuinness and Coach Andy McGovern who was a very welcome addition to the team and has certainly left his mark on our team, and we hope the work put in over the past few years with these lads will eventually bear fruit in the very near future.

Ballinlough: A.Gibney, C.Fleming, R.Farrell, D.Caffrey, J.Connell(0-01), O.McDermott, J.Lynch, M.McCullen, E.Briody, L.Finnegan, D.O’Higgins, H.Ryan(0-02), K.Óg Lynch, D.Shine(0-06(6f)), S.Geraghty

Subs: B.Brunton for K.Óg Lynch 45’, L.Maguire for R.Farrell 57’, S.Tunney for J.Smith 57’

Referee: Patrick Clarke

*On a separate note, a very special thank you to Dunsany who donated two jerseys to Tom Lynch after the game, after seeing his exploits in Manchester last weekend. We have no doubt Tom will love to add them to his collection, and a sincere thank you to Dunsany for the lovely touch…somethings are bigger than football. *

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