Late two-point flurry sees nervy Ballina past London Shamrocks
Ballina Stephenites’ Liam Golden tackles North London Shamrocks’ Rory Morrin. Pic: ©INPHO/Evan Logan
Ballina Stephenites looked down the barrel for a few tense and nervous moments in Bekan Saturday night, briefly dicing with the prospect of entering the record books as the first side to lose to London opposition in the Connacht SFC before three two-pointers in three minutes saw them home.
As the clock moved past the 50 minute mark the score was 1-7 to 0-10 and four speculative and errant long-range shots had sailed wide of the dressing room end goals at the Connacht Centre of Excellence, meaning that the Mayo champions were letting the half pass by without exploiting the strong breeze at their backs.
Then Frank Irwin found the line with an effort from 48 metres out and on the next two attacks, Mike Murray and Ben Thornton following Irwin over the crossbar, ensuring Ballina’s season will carry on through to a meeting with St. Brigid’s in Roscommon next weekend.
On this form, Stephenites have a lot of improvement to find if they are to become the first Mayo club to win a provincial senior title since Castlebar Mitchels in 2015. They started brightly, picking holes in the North London defence with some clever runs from deep to yield points from Luke Doherty and Dylan Thornton and while North London Shamrocks hit back with an excellent double from Joe McGill, a driving run from Sam Callinan opened the door for Doherty to scramble in a goal approaching the midway point of the first half.
Callinan and Seán Regan were excellent along the spine of the Stephenites’ defence with Mike Murray holding court at midfield in a strong fashion, and while Shamrocks offered more of a scoring threat in the second quarter, three quick-fire points before half-time seemed to indicate that Ballina would pull away at their ease once they turned around to play with the breeze.
Michael Carroll kicked two good scores in his role as target man while McGill raised a second orange flag from a free but an 0-7 to 1-3 lead approaching the break looked anaemic, and once Callinan, Conor McStay and Murray pointed for Stephenites, it was hard to see Shamrocks’ way back.
Paddy Dolan split the posts with his first possession after half-time however and through sheer force of grit and will, exemplified by players like Nathan McIlwaine, Daniel Clarke and Liam Gordon, Shamrocks edged their way back to level terms.
Had that trend continued, Ballina’s persistence in trying to split the posts from way out the field would have been cited as their downfall, but after missing the target with four attempts from range, those three quickfire scores eased their nerves and saw them home.
L Doherty 1-1, M Murray 0-3 (1tp), S Callinan 0-2, C McStay 0-2, F Irwin 0-2 (tp), B Thornton 0-2 (tp), D Tighe 0-1, D Thornton 0-1, E Regan 0-1f.
J McGill 0-6 (1tp, 1tpf, 0-2f), M Carroll 0-2, M Miller 0-1, P Dolan 0-1.
D Clarke; L Golden, S Regan, L Jordan; D Tighe, S Callinan, D Feeney; M Murray, F Irwin; N Feeney, C McStay, D Thornton; E Regan, L Doherty, C Treacy.
K Tighe for Feeney (25), B Walsh for Treacy (39), B Thornton for S Regan (39), L Feeney for E Regan (56), C Sweeney for Murray (60).
R McGeehin; E Flanagan, B McKenna, N McIlwaine; C McKelvey, M Friel, T Lenihan; D Clarke, L Murphy; J McGill, M Miller, C Diver; M O'Reilly, M Carroll, R Morrin.
P Dolan for Lenihan (30), D Spillane for Flanagan (42), J McDyre for McKelvey (52).
James Molloy (Salthill-Knocknacarra).
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