Ballintubber 3-16
Claremorris 2-9
Colm Gannon reporting at MacHale Park
BALLINTUBBER ARE BACK in the Mayo senior football championship final after a comprehensive win over Claremorris in Elverys MacHale Park.
Tom Prendergast’s side were more than deserving winners against a young south Mayo outfit.
An awesome first half display from Ballintubber saw them book their place in the final against either Castlebar Mitchels or Garrymore who drew earlier in the day.
While the west Mayo men were stacked with senior inter-county talent, it was one of their lesser known talents Stephen O’Malley who lit up the opening 30 minutes.
He posted 2-5 in a brilliant attacking display, with his side going in leading 3-10 to 0-2 at the break.
Claremorris took the lead inside the opening 15 seconds with a James McCormack point, but that was as good as it got for the south Mayo men as Ballintubber went about opening them up in impressive style.
Michael Plunkett levelled it up with a well taken score before Diarmuid O’Connor hit the back of the net for the first ‘Tubber goal.
Cillian O’Connor and Stephen O’Malley tagged on quick fire points inside the next few minutes and on the ten minutes mark O’Malley struck his first goal of the afternoon.
Tom Prendergast’s men kept the pressure up with Cillian O’Connor and Alan Dillon tagging on points while O’Malley bagged 1-4 more the short whistle in impressive style, Claremorris second score coming form another McCormack score.
The second half opened up with Cillian O’Connor kicking the first point from a close range free.
Claremorris did register their third score of the day through a well taken Conor Diskin point but by that stage, it was about putting in a better showing in the second half for his side.
Meanwhile, Ballintubber wound down the clock from early doors in the final period, taking off both Diarmuid O’Connor and Alan Dillon before the 40th minute.
James Shaugnessy clipped over a few of pointed frees for Claremorris to put a few more marks on the scoreboard, but Ballintubber were able to keep going at their ease with Padraig O’Connor, Diarmuid O’Connor and Damien Coleman keeping the scores ticking over for the 2014 county champions.
Stephen McGreal and Matthew Macken both got the ball in the back of the Ballintubber net in the final five minutes to earn some consolation for their efforts.
But Ballintubber march on to the final after playing their third game in the space of a week after being taken to a replay in the quarter-final by Hollymount-Carramore.
Scorers for Ballintubber: Stephen O’Malley (2-5), Cillian O’Connor (0-5, 2f, 1 45’), Diarmuid O’Connor (1-1), Alan Dillon (0-1), Padraig O’Connor (0-1), Damien Coleman (0-1), Stephen Broderick (0-1), Michael Plunkett (01)
Scorers for Claremorris: James Shaughnessy (0-5, 4f), Stephen McGreal (1-0), Matthew Macken (1-0), James McCormack (0-2), Conor Diskin (0-1), David Egan (0-1)
Ballintubber
1.Brendan Walsh
2. Gary Loftus
3. Cathal Hallinan
4. Brian Murphy
5. Myles Kelly
6. Michael Plunkett
7. Damien Coleman
8. Jason Gibbons
9. Danny Geraghty
30. Padraig O’Connor
11. Alan Plunkett
12. Alan Dillon
21. Diarmuid O’Connor
14. Cillian O’Connor
22. Stephen O’Malley
Subs:
17. David Clarke for Hallinan
23. Stephen Broderick for Diarmuid O’Connor
15. Ray Geraghty for Dillon
18. Joe Geraghty for Murphy
24. Stephen Finnerty for Coleman
26. Going Heneghan for Alan Plunkett
Claremorris
1. Alvin McCallig
2. Paddy Barry
3. Aidan Butler
4. Stephen Brennan
5. Nicky Pilbow
6. James McCormack
7. Ronan Finn
8. David O’Reilly
9. David Egan
10. Ryan Quirke
11. James Shaugnessy
12. Dacin Takkos
22. Ger Cummins
14. Conor Diskin
15. Sean Diskin
Subs:
18. Coin Gill for Cummins
17. Matthew Mackan for Quirke
19. Mikey Higgins for Sean Diskin
26. David Gannon for Ronan Finn
13. Stephen McGreal for Takkos
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