Late drama but Ballina Stephenites hold on to book Mayo football final return

Evan Regan pointed the way as they edged out local rivals Knockmore.

Ballina Stephenites 0-10

Knockmore 0-7

Colm Gannon reports from Crossmolina

BALLINA STEPHENITES HELD on to make it back to the Mayo GAA Senior Football Championship final for the second year in-a-row after they edged out local rivals Knockmore by three points in Crossmolina.

The game ended in drama, when referee Jerome Henry sent Knockmore’s goalkeeper Colm Reape and Adam Naughton to the line along with Ballina’s Jack Irwin after a number of tussles broke out as Knockmore looked to create a goal to send the game to extra time when they were awarded a free 21 meters out from the Ballina goal.

The Stephenites survived the late efforts of Knockmore to book a slot in the decider against a Breaffy side they defeated in the opening round of the group stages of the championship.

Evan Regan was the main man on the scoreboard for the victors kicking six points over an hour of tense and tight football.

At half time, Knockmore led 0-3 to 0-2. The game started with Luke Feeney kicking a mark for the Stephenites inside the opening three minutes. It took another 13 minutes for the next score to arrive through a Liam Durkan effort to level it up.

Both sides exchanged points in the 22nd minute with Aaron Timlin and Regan trading scores, with the final say on the half going to Aidan Orme who pointed a free to send Knockmore in leading by a single point.

Regan levelled the game up not long after the restart before David McHale edged Knockmore back in front on 39 minutes. Ballina then hit a purple patch with Regan pointing a free, which was followed by a fine point from Dylan Thornton and great effort from play from Regan to put Ballina 0-6 to 0-4 up.

Knockmore weren’t going to lie down and points from Aidan Orme and Knockmore made it all square once more with 11 minutes to go. A quick-fire brace from Regan and Conor McStay reasserted the Ballina lead and with three minutes to go, they went three clear thanks to a Ciaran Tracey effort.

Naughton cut it back to a two-point game, before Regan got his final point of the day to put a goal between the sides and Ballina were able to hold on and book their spot in the final.

Scorers for Ballina Stephenites: Evan Regan 0-6 (5f), Luke Feeney 0-1 (1m), Conor McStay, Dylan Thornton and Ciaran Treacy 0-1 each.

Scorers for Knockmore: Aidan Orme and Peter Naughton 0-2 (2f) each, Liam Durkan, Aaron Timlin, Darren McHale 0-1 each.

Ballina Stephenites

1. David Clarke

2. Liam Golden, 3. Ger Cafferkey, 4. Padraig O’Hora

5. Ciaran Boland, 6. Sam Callinan, 7. David Tighe

8. Frank Irwin, 9. Dylan Thornton

10. Niall Feeney, 11. Mark Birrane, 20. Jack Irwin

13. Evan Regan, 14. Luke Feeney, 15. Conor McStay

Subs:

26. Ciaran Treacy for Birrane
19. Sean Regan for Thornton
25. James Doherty for Feeney

Knockmore

1. Colm Reape

2. Marcus Park, 3. Aaron Timlin, 4. Adam Battle

22. Liam Durkan, 6. David McHale, 7. Kieran King

8. Kevin McLoughlin, 9. Shane McHale

10. Pearse Ruttledge, 11. Darren McHale, 12. Connell Dempsey

13. Aidan Orme, 14. Peter Naughton, 23. Oliver Armstrong