Ballina Stephenites back in business again

Ballina back in business again


SFC Section 4
Ballina 1-16
Tourmakeady 1-6

Michael Duffy
Tourmakeady

BALLINA Stephenites put themselves right back in the race for a quarter-final place with a comfortable success away to Tourmakeady on Saturday evening – but Group 4 remains hard to call.
John Healy’s men simply had too much firepower in the second half as they pulled away for a comprehensive victory. They now travel to Claremorris in round three knowing that a victory there will see them safely into the last eight.
Although the ten-point winning margin suggests this was all one-way traffic, it was far from one-sided for the first 35 minutes of the game. Tourmakeady gave as good as they got during the first half and the home supporters had every hope of an upset after 20 minutes when the dangerous Kevin Dolan blasted a penalty past David Clarke. Dolan won the penalty when he burst past a host of Ballina challenges only to see his goal-bound effort blocked by the feet of the returning Ronan McGarrity, who went off early as a precaution with an injury.
That goal levelled matters at 1-1 to 0-4. Dolan had opened the scoring with a free, but Ballina slowly asserted authority with four points on the trot – frees from Liam Brady and Pat Harte, one from play from Liam Brady and a fisted score from the hugely impressive Austin O’Toole, who dominated around the middle for most of the game.
The last ten minutes of the first half were action-packed. Harte put over a free to put Ballina back in the ascendancy before the key passage of play in the game occurred on 27 minutes. Kevin Dolan, Tourmakeady’s only serious threat, cut inside Shane Melia along the end line and it looked as if a second home goal was on the cards. However, his shot went inches wide of Clarke’s top corner, and within 60 seconds, the ball was in the net at the other end after a superb Ballina move.
The impressive Brian Ruane fed O’Toole, who floated a superb ball over the head of substitute Pat Heneghan, into the hands of Patrick ‘Gazza’ McHale, whose finish was quite superb, slotting the ball cooly past the advancing Mark Gibbons. Quality injury-time points from Brian Heneghan and Ger Brady left Ballina with a four-point cushion at the break.
Tourmakeady needed a good start to the second half and they opened the scoring when the evergreen John Heneghan reduced the margin to three on 32 minutes. However, that was as close as Jack Grimes’ men came to Ballina, who began to dominate in all areas. They racked up five points without reply through Pat Harte (free), Ger Brady, Paul McGarry, Liam Brady (free) and Patrick McHale.
Dolan lifted the siege briefly with a free on 50 minutes, but Ballina were in unstoppable form by that stage and reeled off five more on the trot through Liam Brady, sub Evan Regan (two classy scores), sub Lorcan Healy and Ger Brady, who oozed class throughout the hour.
Tourmakeady finished off proceedings with a fine score from Brendan Prendergast and a fisted effort from substitute Brian Naughton. He and his brother Tom showed their loyalty to the home cause by playing even though their sister Siobhan was married in the local church just hours earlier.

Ballina Stephenites
D Clarke; S Melia, E Casey, D O’Mahony; B Ruane, G Cafferkey, T Doherty; A O’Toole (0-1), R McGarrity; G Brady (0-3), P Harte (0-3, 2f), S Hughes; P McGarry (0-1), L Brady (0-4, 2f), P McHale (1-1).
Subs used: E Regan (0-2) for McGarry; A Stutt for S Hughes; L Healy (0-1) for B Ruane; A Tighe for P Harte; C Leonard for Doherty.

Tourmakeady
M Gibbons; M Heneghan, D Prendergast, T Staunton; MJ Walsh, B Prendergast (0-1), MJ Meenaghan; M O’Neill, John Heneghan (0-1); S O’Neill, T Naughton, M Ronan; B Heneghan (0-1), Joe Heneghan, K Dolan (1-2, 2f).
Subs used: P Heneghan for B Heneghan; A O’Neill for S O’Neill; D O’Toole for P Heneghan; B Naughton (0-1) for B Heneghan; M Kelly for Ronan.

Referee: J Henry (Castlebar Mitchels)