June 15th 2019 – West Mayo U-14 B Final
Ballintubber 3-6 Breaffy 2-18
They put in a brave effort, but it just wasn’t to be for our U-14s who fell short to a superior Breaffy outfit in the West Mayo B Final in Parke yesterday evening. Our lads never gave in, but Breaffy held a commanding lead for nearly the entire game and were by far the better team. Time and time again, our neighbours forced turnovers high up the field and use this as a springboard for numerous attacks. A number of unforced errors on our part certainly didn’t help our cause, but our opponents were superior up front in any case.
Trailing 1-2 to 0-11 at half-time, two second half goals from Breaffy’s Patrick Hopkins and Robert Callaghan killed any hopes of a Ballintubber revival. Wing-back Darragh Duffy had converted an penalty on the half after Gavin Murphy was fouled in the box. Our only other scores of the entire half came late on when Jamie Gibbons and Sean Hynes shared a point each. We struggled to get the ball up the field and Breaffy capitalised on our many mistakes, pointing 0-11 before the break. Full-forward Patrick Hopkins had also come very close to hitting the Ballintubber net when his low shot rattled of the upright and wide.
With Breaffy in a comfortable position going into the third quarter, Paul Breslin’s charges never lay down. Our U-14s honoured the Red and White jersey with a ferocious work ethic which didn’t translate into sufficient scores. The numerous misplaced passes we executed in our own half were frequently mopped up by a rampant Breaffy side. This meant that players like Mark Ward, Jack Canny and Patrick Hopkins made hay all evening when the ball came their way.
Four second-half points shared between Jamie Gibbons and Rory Cunningham were no match for Breaffy’s superior scoring power. Indeed, but for a number of impressive saves from ‘Tubber’s Shane Malone, our opponents could well have raised one or two more green flags.
With our neighbours having clocked up 2-16 by the 50th minute, it looked like annihilation was on the cards. However a good solo run from centre-forward Jack Prendergast resulted in a penalty which Darren Duffy duly converted. Our best move of the game came right at the death when Michael Donnelly cleverly fed Jamie Gibbons who blasted the ball to the net from close range. It was good honest effort from our lads, but Breaffy had looked like the winners from early on. And so it finished up as our local rivals ran out deserved winners in this latest meeting of the two parishes.
Ballintubber team that lined out: (1)Shane Malone (2)Donal Behan (3)Brendan McNally (0-4)Jamie Igoe (5)Michael Donnelly (6)Rory Cunningham (0-1, 1f) (7)Darragh Duffy (2-0, 2p) (8)Eoghan Breslin (9)Oisín Brady (10)Sean Hynes (0-1) (11)Jack Prendergast (12)Gavin Murphy (13)Jamie Gibbons (1-4, 1f) (14)James Ryan (15)Rhys Jones
Substitutions used: Sean Mannion for Gavin Murphy, Cathal Fahy for James Ryan, Daniel Malone for Jamie Gibbons, Dylan Jordan for Eoghan Breslin