Ballintubber 0-10 Aghamore 1-10
Our seniors shipped their first defeat of the Mayo Senior League in Ballintubber this evening as we fell somewhat flat in the second half, failing to score for a full 18 minutes. With both sides deprived of their Mayo players neither team really dominated in perfect footballing conditions. We were hampered early on by the withdrawal of Alan Dillon with who had tweaked his hamstring while a few refereeing decisions went against us in the second half. In the end, it was a first half goal from Aghamore’s Conor Kilkenny which proved to be the difference between the two teams as the East Mayo side came away with both points.
Former Mayo forward Alan Freeman got the scoreboard ticking with two points in two minutes before Keelan McDonnell and Padraic O’Connor landed our first two scores. The pivotal moment of the game arrived in only the sixth minute when Aghamore’s James McNieve set up wing-back Conor Kilkenny. Kilkenny then let loose a shot which Tom McGing got a touch to but was unable to keep out, thus raising the only green flag of the game.
Our misfortune was compounded when Alan Dillon had to go off with a tweaked hamstring, and from then on we lacked a bit up front. Indeed, we never came even remotely close to troubling Adam Byrne in the Aghamore goal as we failed to create any serious goal chance. We did manage to string together a few nice moves after Dillon’s departure which resulted in points for Alan Plunkett and Keelan McDonnell and two converted frees from Stephen O’Malley which levelled the game. Aghamore replied with four unanswered scores as Ross Egan and Alan Freeman put our full-back line to the test.
Trailing by four at the break, Alan Plunkett and Brian Walsh pointed the first two scores of the half with substitute Noel Geraghty adding a third. With only a point separating the sides and Jason Gibbons dominating centre field, we failed to build sufficient momentum and failed to score for 18 minutes. In what was at times quite a physical battle, a number of stoppages in the play didn’t do us any favours while a number of refereeing decisions went against us.
The visitor’s got off the mark for the second half on the 47th minute when Ross Egan pointed a free. Subsitute Jack Higgins added a single before Egan pointed another dead ball for their final score of the game.
Our second half scoring drought was ended when a Stephen O’Malley free brought the deficit back to three. However the goal chance that we needed never materialised as Aghamore held out for the win.
Ballintubber team that lined out: (1)Tom McGing (2)Gary Loftus (3)Joe Geraghty (4)Finian Burke (5)Hugh Geraghty (6)Damien Coleman (7)Myles Kelly (8)Brian Walsh (0-1) (9)Jason Gibbons (10)Jamsie Finnerty (11)Alan Plunkett (0-2) (12)Keelan McDonnell (0-2) (13)Padraic O’Connor (0-1) (14)Alan Dillon (15)Stephen O’Malley (0-3, 3f)
Substitutions used: Noel Geraghty (0-1) for Alan Dillon, John Kerrigan for Hugh Geraghty