Goals from oconnor brothers seal ballintubbers title win

Peter Ford’s search for a county senior championship title in his capacity as manager finally ended at blustery MacHale Park, Castlebar, today where he turned the tables on his old club, and defending Mayo and Connaught champions, Castlebar Mitchels.

This is the third final Castlebar have lost to their great rivals as Ford, who was joint manager on this occasion with Tony Duffy, lost as manager with Castlebar in 2011 but finally got his reward as Ballintubber, who had four of the O’Connor brothers playing, landed their third title in five years.

And the O’Connor seal of approval was on this victory with first-half goals from Padraig and Cillian leaving Castlebar chasing a seven-point deficit after just eight minutes (2-1) to 0-2 and playing into a gale.

The Mitchels narrowed the gap to two points at the interval with points from Richie Feeney, Neill Lydon, Fergal Durkin and a free from Eoghan O’Reilly to leave it 2-2 to 0-6 at the break.

A terrific point from Alan Dillon had the gap to three points before Barry Moran had Castlebar on level terms with a tap-in goal, but Ballintubber just pulled out that bit extra as Diarmuid O’Connor, Stephen Broderick and Cillian O’Connor (free) nailed the scores which swung it in favour of the Abbeysiders, who fully deserved their victory.

Final score: Ballintubber 2-9, Castlebar Mitchels 1-9.

Scorers for Ballintubber: C. O’Connor 1-3 (1f), P. O’Connor 1-1, D. O’Connor and S. Broderick 0-2 each, A. Dillon 0-1.
Scorers for Castlebar: B. Moran 1-1, E. O‘Reilly (2f) and R. Feeney 0-2 each, N. Lydon, A. Walsh (f), D. Kirby and F. Durkin 0-1 each.