Junior ‘B’ Championship: Ballynacargy 5-9 Mullingar Shamrocks 3-12
‘It was a belter of a match’, the man from Bal commented after the final whistle and that’s exactly what it was. Twenty-nine scores, including eight goals, if it was a hurling match the pundits would be complaining that scores were too easily gathered. This was a game of non-stop attacking football, high fielding especially by Zach, great saves and defending and a goal worthy of winning any match as well as the occasional mistake along the way. And it was great to hear supporters cheering their team as the Ballynacargy supporters did on the night.
Playing against the strong wind Mullingar Shamrocks started impressively and had 1-3 on the scoreboard before Ballynacargy registered a score. Dillon Matthews and Ryan Blundell pointed before Zach Aherne scored the opening goal. Seanie Daly did all the heavy lifting for this score, fielding a kick-out and soloing through before releasing Zach who finished in style. Cormac Hynes added another point before Ballynacargy responded with a goal and added two points to cut the gap to the minimum. A Zach Aherne point and a great Seanie Daly point from close to the side-line and into the wind extended the Shamrocks lead to three points but a second Ballynacargy goal levelled the match at the first water break (1-5 to 2-2). Ballynacargy pointed on the restart but when Ronan McHugh crashed the ball to the net Shamrocks moved ahead once again. Ronan applied the finishing touches to a great move that began back on the Shamrocks goal mouth with a superb Matthew Siode interception. Seanie Daly kicked his second point of the evening before a third Ballynacargy goal secured a half-time lead for the home team. This goal followed from a brilliant Sean Hynes save but unfortunately a Ballynacargy forward reacted first to the rebound and dispatched the ball to the net (2-6 to 3-4).
Shamrocks dominated the third quarter and outscored Ballynacargy (1-4 to 0-1) to establish a 3-10 to 3-5 lead at the second water break. Seanie Daly pointed, Dillon Mathews fielded the restart, called a mark and delivered a long inch-perfect pass to Seanie who dispatched the ball to the Ballynacargy net. Seanie had an additional bit of pressure to contend with on the night as his fiancée Anna and his mother-in-law to be Mary made the journey from Philadelphia via Doolin to Ballynacargy and saw Seanie in Gaelic football action for the first time. A contribution of 1-3 from play in thirty-five minutes was a good evening’s work and all the interested parties went home happy. Half-time substitute Matthew Maslin kicked one of his trade-mark left footed specials and Adam McCormack added another point with one of his first touches of the ball. A pointed free from Matthew ended the third quarter scoring with Shamrocks still helped by the strong wind leading by five points.
Ballynacargy regrouped and outscored Mullingar Shamrocks 2-4 to 0-2 in the final quarter. The revival began with a gift goal and only a great save from Seán Hynes prevented another one. The resulting 45 floated into the Shamrocks goalmouth and the scrambled play ended with another brilliant reflex save by Seán to keep the net intact. Ballynacargy pointed two frees, Matthew Maslin added a similar score to Shamrocks total before Philip Price kicked a great point from play, The sides were level (4-8 to 3-11) when Price sent a rocket of a shot past Seán Hynes, a goal of pure class that was worth the admission price alone. Lee Keena added an insurance point, another fine effort. There was time for a few more attacks and Tomas Turks soled up-field and finished a great run with a point. That was it and when the final whistle blew Ballynacargy were ahead on a score line of 5-9 to 3-12. On the same date and day thirty-three years ago we were in Hanover when Ronnie Whelan scored a famous goal for the Republic of Ireland in Euro’88. The entertainment in Ballynacargy in this Junior B game was just as good.
Mullingar Shamrocks: Sean Hynes; Eamonn Breslin (Daithí Martin), Mathew Siode, Peter Dale; Jack Kelly, Ryan Blundell (0-1), Thomas Turks (0-1); Seanie Daly (1-3) [Adam McCormack, 0-1), Dillon Matthews (0-1); Cormac Hynes (0-1) (Eamonn Breslin), Zach Aherne (1-1), Andrew Shaw; Ronan McHugh (1-0) [Mark Shaw], Gary Corroon (Matthew Maslin, 0-3), Trevor Keena.
