Ballagh’ blow Kiltane away

Ballagh’ blow Kiltane away

Ballagh    2-20
Kiltane       1-5

Sean Rice

IT was as fast and as efficient as the knockout of Bernard Dunne. Ballaghaderreen hadn’t worked up a sweat before the outcome stared us in the face. Like a hurricane they swept into attack, and far stronger teams than Kiltane would have failed to contain them. The championship favourites were quite simply devastating.
As a match it was too one-sided to be interesting. Emotions swung between admiration for a formidable machine and sympathy for the side unfortunate to have picked the short straw. Kiltane did their best with limited resources.
But no opposition would have withstood Ballaghaderreen in Sunday’s form. A better side may find a flaw somewhere, but the statistics reveal how unsuccessful was Kiltane’s effort.
The Erris men scored one point from play, their first in the fourth minute by Edmond Barrett. Their remaining four points were from frees by Shane Lindsay. In between it was the Ballaghaderreen show entirely.
They were two points up inside a minute, and had scored six by the 13th minute, two each by the two Morans, Andy and Derek, and one each by Barry Kelly and James Kilcullen.
The source of many of their attacks was an unbreachable half-back line consisting of Stephen Drake, David Kilcullen and Declan McGarry, an irresistible line of defence. They opened up avenues from all directions, linking systematically with midfielders James Kilcullen and Barry Kelly and a hungry forward line in which every member was a leader.
No clean catching was possible at midfield where Kiltane’s James O’Donnell and John Scanlon managed to break down a lot of ball, but Ballaghaderreen won that area by using Andy Hanley as a third midfielder. He may only have ended up with one point to his name. However, his contribution to victory was as important as that of any of the others including Barry Regan who managed 1-5, two of them from frees.
Pearce Hanley, the man Mayo has lost to Australia, delivered the killer blow in the 16th minute. He was at the end of a five-man sweeping movement involving James Kilcullen, Derek Moran, Barry Regan and Andy Hanley who picked out the centre-half forward on the edge of the square. After that it was a matter of how much.
Four points, a disallowed goal by Andy Moran (who together with Derek Moran, the Hanleys, Barry Solan and Barry Regan was in regal form) and their second goal followed all in the space of a few minutes. Regan was the finisher, Derek Moran the provider.
By now Kiltane had made three substitutions, among them the introduction of Sean Carey, who has been out through injury all year. He made an instant impact, providing Patrick Joseph Gaughan, who had moved from defence, with the opportunity to score their goal just before the interval. But they were still thirteen points behind, 2-12 to 1-2.
Carey was also at the heart of a more aggressive Kiltane after the break which held their opponents scoreless for fifteen minutes and during which the play fell ragged and disjointed.
But stiff resistance by the Ballaghaderreen defence, including David Loftus and Joe McCann, helped them rediscover their rhythm . . . and their scoring power.
Seven minutes from the end Kiltane lost their full-back Thomas Gallagher, red-carded for an incident with James Kilcullen, and their misery continued when goalkeeper Ollie Flanagan saved spectacularly from a penalty by Shane Lindsay with almost the last kick of the game