Ballina back themselves to book Mayo senior final date with Breaffy

Last year’s beaten finalists, Ballina Stephenites, saw off the challenge of Knockmore to book their place against Breaffy in this year’s Connacht Gold Mayo Senior Football Championship final, writes John Melvin.

It finished 0-10 to 0-7 in Crossmolina, ensuring that two teams who met in the group stages will now meet in the final.

However, Ballina’s win may have come with a price as Jack Irwin was one of three men shown a red card following a goalmouth fracas involving players from both sides in the last two of eight minutes of injury time added on at the end of the game.

Two Knockmore players, Adam Naughton and goalkeeper Colm Reape, also picked up red cards in the same incident, which arose when Knockmore came looking for a late goal to force the game into extra time.

The game itself was a slow burner, with both sides setting up defensively, and that was reflected in the half-time score which saw Knockmore take a narrow one-point lead with them into the dressing-room – 0-3 to 0-2 – Ballina having played for 10 minutes without Conor McStay after he was shown a black card.

Both sides will feel they left a goal chance behind them in that first half, Luke Feeney blasting wide in front of an open goal when he was gifted a stray pass by the Knockmore defence, while David Clarke and David Tighe combined between them to deny Peter Naughton from close range.

Three minutes into the second half, top gun Evan Regan, who finished on 0-6, tied matters at 0-3 again, and it was still level after Darren McHale and Regan (free) traded scores.

A two-minute spurt of energy saw Ballina go two points clear, Dylan Thornton, who was forced off later with a leg injury, scoring a brilliant point which Regan backed up with an equally superb effort from play as the momentum now swung towards Ballina.

However, Knockmore bounced back with two points of their own, Orme and Peter Naughton nailing a free each to make it a tied game 0-6 apiece with 10 minutes remaining.

Hoverer, Ballina’s more direct approach and their bench players were now beginning to make an impact and a mark that turned into a free in front of the posts after an off-the-ball incident saw Regan kick Ballina into the lead and a minute later a mazy run by Conor McStay had Ballina two up and now taking command.

That gap was extended to three when substitute Ciaran Teracy kicked a magnificent point in the 58th minute.

Peter Naughton reduced the margin to two as the clock went into the red but a goal was Knockmore’s only route to salvation when Evan Regann kicked his fifth free of the day deep into injury time.

With Ballina supporters anxiously awaiting the final whistle there was more drama when a close-in free was awarded after a linesman brought the attention of the referee to a late tackle on Adam Naughton.

Aiden Orme’s effort came back of a Ballina player and a second attempt from goalkeeper Colm Reape also came back off a Ballina defender but resulted in a free, and that triggered a fracas involving a number of players from both sides, resulting in the three red cards. The final whistle came a minute later after Ballina finally cleared their lines.

In the Egan Jewellers Intermediate Football Championship semi-finals, Kilmeena made it back to a second successive final with a come-from-behind victory over Moy Davitts. The final score was Kilmeena 1-18, Moy Davitts 2-13.

Kilmeena will meet Ballinrobe in the final after the south Mayo team proved too strong for Castlebar Mitchels B, winning by nine points in the end (1-15 to 1-6) to maintain their very impressive championship form.

Finally, the two TF Royal Hotel & Theatre Junior B Football Championship semi-finals were played today, with defending champions Achill overcoming Tourmakeady by 0-13 to 2-4 and Ballycastle getting by Kilmovee by the narrowest of margins, 1-11 to 0-13.

The finals in all grades will be played over the October bank holiday weekend.