Ballaghadereen 1-9 Ballintubber 0-4: BALLINTUBBER'S THREE- in-row bid ran into a stone wall in the shape of Ballaghadereen; who picked up their third Mayo senior football title at McHale Park Castlebar yesterday.
In what was a very physical and untidy battle at times, the best team won in the end as the defending champions ran out of juice, particular in the second half when they lost their talisman Alan Dillon through injury.
But even with Dillon, Ballintubber never looking like winning this match, as the hungrier Ballaghadereen side powered on in the final 10 minutes, their goal on 58 minutes from Barry Kelly sealing the victory.
Their triumph always looked inevitable once they began to dominate at midfield, where Kelly and James Kilcullen were superb, and in defence, where Ballintubber were held to a single point in the second half due mainly to super performances from Stephen and David Drake along with Keith Rogers.
Ballintubber were fortunate to be just three adrift at the interval – 0-6 to 0-3 – as it was Ballaghaderreen who created by far the greater number of chances but the finishing was poor, with Andy Hanley in particular guilty of a few poor efforts.
However, Barry Regan was on song and it was his freetaking, three from over 50 yards, that kept Ballaghadereen ticking over.
Their lead extended to four points at one stage, but points from Alan Plunkett, Jason Gibbons and Alan Dillon, all from play, kept Ballintubber hanging on, until Kelly’s goal finally killed them off.
BALLAGHADERREEN: O Flanagan; S Drake; P Rogers; T Regan; P Kelly; K Rogers (0-1); D Drake; B Kelly (1-0); J Kilcullen; D Kilcullen (0-1, 45); A Hanley; S Finn; O Jordan; B Regan (0-5, five frees), J Dillon (0-1). Subs: C Doohan for T Regan (39 mins); R Conway (0-1) for J Dillon (25); B Solan for Finn (59).
BALLINTUBBER: B Walsh; L Tunney; Hallinan; P Earley; M Kelly; E Earley; R O’Connor; D Geraghty; J Gibbons (0-1); D Coleman; A Dillon (0-1); M Hoban; D McGing (0-1); D O’Connor; P O’Connor. Subs: J Duffy for M Hoban (28 mins); D Sommerville for P O’Connor (h-t); A Plunkett (0-1) for Dillon (50); K McGuinness for D O’Connor (55).
Connacht Club Championship First Round (Oct 28th) – Melvin Gaels (Leitrim)v St Brigid’s (Roscommon)/ Semi-finals (Nov 11th) – Salthill/Knocknacarra (Galway) v Melvin Gaels/St Brigid’s; (Curry) v Ballaghaderreen (Mayo). Final – Nov 25th
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