June 16 2021
West Mayo Junior B Championship
Islandeady B 2-13 Ballintubber B 6-13
Our juniors clocked up a second win in a week in a seven-goal thriller against Islandeady’s second team on Wednesday evening.
While the home side were competitive in most areas of the field, they simply weren’t able to turn over a flurry of first-half goals from the Abbeysiders.
Led by experienced campaigners like Ray Geraghty, Padraic O’Connor and Kevin Shannon, plenty of new blood was injected throughout the match.
Graduates from last year’s minor team Darragh Moran, Cillian Joyce, Ryan Wilson, Magus Malone, Colm Larkin and Stephen Burke all saw game time.
Burke showed his potential with another impressive shift at corner-forward, while Darragh Moran didn’t look out of place among Kevin Shannon and Aaron Lally in the full-back line.
It was really a case of ‘goals win games’ particularly in a first half where we put 6-5 past the Islandeady goalie – including a pair of remarkable three-pointers from Aaron Lally.
We managed 0-8 in a slower second half in which we ran our bench but were never seriously threatened by a resurgence from the hosts.
Padraic O’Connor netted the first with just minutes played before our opponents strung together 0-4 without reply in what was their best period in the game.
After that, Gary Walsh’s charges were on the warpath. O’Connor pointed his second before Dean Loftus fed his neighbour Adrian Murphy a lovely ball before the Moorehall man finished superbly.
A penalty from POC after Darragh McGovern was hauled down in the box left the scores at 3-4.
Corner-forwards Stephen Burke and Alan Larkin then combined for Larkin – the more senior of the two – to finish for our fourth goal.
Corner-back Aaron Lally landed our fourth when an apparent point attempt from the right wing sailed over the goalie’s head and into the top corner.
Remarkably, lightening struck in the same place twice just a minute later.
Once again, Lally channelled Ronaldinho and lobbed the goalie yet again from nearly the same position as his first effort.
(Did he mean it? Only he knows. He certainly seemed quite pleased with his second attempt!)
With a commanding 14-point lead at half-time, the second half was a more pedestrian affair.
While Islandeady never yielded, we did just enough to keep them at arms’ length.
Adrian Murphy kicked the pick of our second-half points with a long-range effort as we gave most of our subs a go.
To their credit, the young brigade got stuck in, with junior debutant Magnus Malone getting among the scorers as the game drew to a close.
With two wins from two in the group stages, our passage to the next round of the West Mayo Junior B Championship is now secure, with Burrishoole up next on June 23.
Ballintubber team that lined out: (1)Niall Staunton (2)Darragh Moran (3)Kevin Shannon (28)Aaron Lally (2-0) (5)Cillian Redmond (6)John Kerrigan (7)Cillian Joyce (8)Darragh McGovern (1-0) (9)Dean Loftus (10)Adrian Murphy (1-1) (11)Padraic O’Connor (2-1, 1-0 pen), (12)Seanie Larkin (0-3) (13)Alan Larkin (1-0) (14)Ray Geraghty (0-6, 5f) (15)Stephen Burke (0-1)
Substitutions used: Jarlath Staunton for Cillian Joyce (24 min), Cian Barrett for Aaron Lally (24 min), Robbie Finnerty for Stephen Burke (42 min), Liam Feeney for Cillian Redmond (42 min), Colm Larkin for John Kerrigan (55 min), Ryan Wilson for Kevin Shannon (57 min), Sean Staunton for Adrian Murphy (59 min), Magnus Malone (0-1) for Darragh McGovern (60 min), Luke Murphy for Darragh Moran (60 min)
Referee: Kieran Barnicle