March 31st 2019 Mayo Senior League Division 1
Ballintubber 0-10 Breaffy 0-10
Once again, a winner could not be determined. The fact that the last four meetings between these two teams has yielded a total winning margin of one solitary point say it all about the gap between us and our nearest neighbours. Many will remember that the point in question came in the form of a bolt from the heavens from the left boot of Diarmuid O’Connor, which sent the Moclair Cup to Ballintubber for the fourth time on that famous October evening. Unfortunately, the Mayo captain wasn’t on hand to deliver the clincher on Saturday evening as we found ourselves level in injury time, but unable to break the deadlock. In fairness, a draw was a fair result given the general run of play, as these two teams proved yet again that there is almost nothing to separate them, even without their respective Mayo panellists.
As the score line suggests, this was yet another tit-for-tat arm-wrestle between our championship rivals. It was the Breaffy men that capitalised on a number of early mistakes by the Red and White and initially took the lead with three unanswered points. Brian Walsh and Alan Dillon tagged on scores before Tommy Reilly and Stephen McDermott stretched their lead back to 3 points. Points from the boots of Stephen O’Malley and Alan Plunkett reduced the deficit to two before O’Malley sent a massive free a massive free straight over “the black dot” to leave the scores 0-7 0-6 at half-time.
Goal chances were at a premium in the second half, with Alan Plunkett shooting our best chance wide after weaving his way towards the Breaffy goalmouth. During this time, the visitors retained the lead with Colm Quinn firing off a rocket of a shot from out near Tourmakeady for their tenth and final point. Undeterred, our lads kept pace as Stephen O’Malley and Brian Walsh chalked up crucial scores. Jason Gibbons dominated at centre field while Alan Dillon’s clever play at full-forward provided a steadying hand for our attack. Indeed the Mayo legend had a huge hand in negating Breaffy’s two-point lead, first sending over a huge free with the outside of the boot before turning provider for Brian Walsh to level the game.
With the scores at 0-10 a piece we went in search of a winner. However the few chances we mustered would ultimately go a begging, with Ciarán Gavin arguably coming closest with a daring toe-poke from near the end line which flew wide. In the end both points were shared and we are yet again none the wiser as to who are the better team.
Ballintubber team that lined out: (1)Brendan Walsh (2)Gary Loftus (3)Joe Geraghty (4)Finian Bourke (5)Myles Kelly (6)Damien Coleman (7)Keelan McDonnell (8)Jason Gibbons (9)Ciarán Gavin (10)Noel Geraghty (11)Alan Plunkett (0-1) (12)Brian Walsh (0-3) (13)Padraic O’Connor (14)Alan Dillon (0-2, 1f) (15)Stephen O’Malley (0-4, 3f)
Subs Used. Jamsie Finnerty for Noel Geraghty and Hugh Geraghty for Keelan McDonnell