Division 1D of the league vs Tourmakeady

September 9th 2018 - Mayo Senior League 2018 
Tourmakeady 0-11 Ballintubber 0-7
On the day that the third round of the Senior and Intermediate championship was cast into the limelight our juniors lost to our neighbours Tourmakeady in Division 4 of the League this afternoon in a battling and at times fiery encounter. With hits both fair and foul being given and taken from the very start, this one had the real feel of a local derby, which meant cards of every colour were brandished by referee Jarlath O’Connor. For us this meant losing David McHale to a black and Liam Feeney to a red late on.
However it was the home side who were that bit more dogged and determined in their play while David Dolan’s five-point haul in the first half meant they could afford to lose the second half by a point and still emerge victorious.
Throughout the entire game, we came up a small bit short in the forward line, only managing three first-half scores through Hugh Geraghty, Aaron Lally and Louis Hoban. The experienced Stephen Broderick got his hands on plenty of ball while our full-back line kept their men scoreless. Losing David McHale to a black card certainly set us back as the Gaeltacht men rattled off four consecutive points before the break.
A pair of frees from full-forward Hugh Geraghty followed by a point from Seanie Larkin brought us back within three points of the home side. However a serious goal chance never materialised and some error-strewn Tourmakeady play went unpunished. What the game lacked in end-to-end scoring it made up for in physicality, with tempers flaring up occasionally both on and off the field. 
Along with Kevin Shannon and Oran Scully, Liam Feeney had been rock-solid prior to his red-card dismissal after which the home side pointed either side of a Hugh Geraghty free. In the end, the win was Tourmakeady’s after a contest that was somewhat closer than the final score would suggest.
Ballintubber team that lined out: (1)Tom McGing (2)Oran Scully (3)Kevin Shannon (4)Liam Feeney (5)Jarlath Staunton (6)Keith Coleman (7)Aaron Lally (0-1) (8)David McHale (9)John Kerrigan (10)James McGing (11)Stephen Broderick (12)Seanie Larkin (0-1) (13)Noel Geraghty (14)Hugh Geraghty (0-4, 4f) (15)Louis Hoban (0-1)
Substitutions used: Eoin Heneghan for David McHale (Black Card), Paddy Burke for James McGing

REPORT BY OISIN MCGOVERN