Mayo Senior Football Championship Round 2
Ballintubber 3-19 Bohola Moy Davitts 1-7
August 8 2020
After a disappointing display against Aghamore last Saturday, our Seniors made a serious statement of intent with a superb victory over Bohola Moy Davitts in Foxford this evening.
With the banks of the River Moy glistening on a beautiful summer’s evening, our lads reminded the limited number of spectators why they are county champions.
Our play was far more fluid and our finishing more clinical than what we produced against Aghamore.
Some of our foot-passing was a joy to behold as we played with a real sense of adventure and ruthlessness.
We were particularly impressive in the final two thirds of the field, where Jason Gibbons and Bryan Walsh gave outstanding displays.
Cillian O’Connor spearheaded an attack that saw eight different players kick nineteen unique scores from play.
Our attacking intent was apparent from early on in the game. We had the ball in the net after only eight minutes when Michael Plunkett fed Jamsie Finnerty who fisted cleverly across the square for Alan Dillon to fire home.
Diarmuid O’Connor nearly had the ball in the net a minute later after dragging a daisy-cutter of a shot narrowly wide.
At the other end, Moy Davitts fed quick ball into corner-forward Brian Heneghan, who caused us some trouble with his pace.
Former Mayo panellist Brian Reape – who finished with two simple frees to his name - operated mainly around the middle where Diarmuid and Jason ran the show.
The hosts had just knocked over their fourth point when Diarmuid sent a clever ball in the direction of Stephen O’Malley who buried the ball home for our second goal.
With the scores now at 2-3 to 0-4 in our favour, the ‘Tubber were very much on the ascendency.
Michael Plunkett was hugely influential at centre-back while Jason Gibbons and Bryan Walsh caused havoc with their darting runs.
We delivered quality ball time and again and were awarded a penalty when Jamsie Finnerty was fouled in the square after being set up by Jason. Up stepped Cillian O’Connor, who sent the Moy Davitts goalie the wrong way with his conversion, putting us ten points ahead.
The Moysiders continued to cause our full-back line hassle via the long ball and managed to get their only goal when a Noel Regan free was fisted into the net on the stroke of half-time.
It proved a minor setback, as we were already in cruise control with a comfortable 3-6 to 1-4 lead.
We continued to impress in the second half, firing over four successive scores from Stephen O’Malley, Jason Gibbons and Cillian O’Connor in the space of ten minutes.
Moy Davitts managed their first points since the middle of the first half when Anthony Jordan and Brian Reape shared a free each.
However, the hosts were set back when they saw a man black-carded, which allowed us to push further ahead.
Cillian O’Connor, Jason Gibbons and Bryan Walsh continued to excel and added a point to each of their tallies. Substitutes Alan Plunkett, Noel Geraghty and Keelan McDonnell all contributed after being introduced, with Noel and Keelan hitting 0-3 between them while Plunkett was his usual lively self.
Our unrelenting effort and superb team play saw us amass 3-19 before the final whistle, leaving nobody in any doubt that Kevin Johnson’s troops are on the march once more.
Ballintubber team that lined out: (1)Brendan Walsh (2)Gary Loftus (20)Finian Bourke (4)Myles Kelly (5)Damien Coleman (6)Michael Plunkett (7)Brian Murphy (8)Jason Gibbons (0-3), (9)Diarmuid O’Connor (0-1) (10)Ciarán Gavin (18)Alan Dillon (1-0) (12)Brian Walsh (0-4) (13)Jamsie Finnerty (14)Cillian O’Connor (1-6, 1 pen, 2f)(15)Stephen O’Malley (1-2)
Substitutions used: Noel Geraghty (0-1) for Jamsie Finnerty, Keelan McDonnell (0-2) for Alan Dillon, Alan Plunkett for Stephen O’Malley, Joe Geraghty for Brian Murphy, Hugh Geraghty for Myles Kelly
Referee: Eamon McAndrew