Twelve minutes into the second half Ballymacelligott had a three point lead over Rathmore in this Round 4 SFL tie played in Ballymacelligott today. Rathmore clawed the lead back to a point with six minutes to go. These last six minutes plus four of injury time saw heroics from both sides and just on the final whistle Rathmore got a goal disallowed as the player was in the square.
It was a fab day for football in Ballymacelligott today where a very warm and deserving welcome was given to Rathmore the AIB All Ireland Intermediate Champions. Prior to the game a minutes silence was observed for Club Member John Bermingham who passed away this week.
The first half of this game saw ten out of the fifteen scores coming from frees. Michéal Reidy and Niall Collins scoring the only two points from play for the home side. Rathmore scored five points from play. The half time score was Ballymacelligott 0-9 to Rathmore 0-7.
Ciaran Collins with a point from a free opened the scoring for Rathmore in the second half. Aidan Breen scored two points from frees for the home side. Rathmore counter attacked immediately and scored a point from a free once again from the boot of Ciaran Collins. Rathmore kept the pressure up and the home side breathed a sign of relief to see Dan O’Shea intercept a ball and run with it to the oppositions half forward line where a top class pass to Donal Daly resulted in a point. Rathmore did not let up and were very unlucky when a ball intended for the net hit the tip of the cross bar and rebounded to be cleared by Ballymac. With fifteen minutes to go Ballymac were in the lead 0-12 to Rathmore 0-10.
John Moynihan scored two points from play to bring the East Kerry side level. In between these two points a great block-down by Niall Collins, for Ballymac, on the full back line,ensured they were still in the game.
Great interplay between Brian Lonergan and Tadhg Brick resulted in a fine point from Donal Daly. A block down by Brian Lonergan once again gave the advantage to Ballymac and Vinnie Horan scored their last point.
Rathmore pressed on and really piled on the pressure in these last six minutes and four minutes of added time. A point from Ciaran Collins left just one point between the teams. Christy Leen in goals cleared a goal bound ball. A free from Rathmore went wide. Ballymac’s Darragh Sweeney got a black card and the resultant free went wide. In the last seconds of the game Rathmore got the ball into the net and the goal was disallowed.
Ballymacelligott came into this game with a lot of players injured. The lads that played showed their willingness to work hard and they grinded out these two points with determination from the throw in. Dan O’Shea had a mighty game as did Aidan Breen with Brian Lonergan, Tadhg Brick and Darragh Sweeney working hard and taking charge when it was needed.
Thanks to Oonagh O’Rahilly for the photos.
We play Dr Crokes in Lewis Road next.
Team and Scores: Christy Leen, Mike Sweeney, Dan O’Shea, Diarmuid Galvin, Darragh Sweeney, Tadhg Brick, Dylan Dunne, Aidan Breen (0-7 frees) Michéal Reidy (0-1) Josh O’Keeffe, Brian Lonergan , Niall Collins (0-1) Donal Daly (0-3) , Michael Herlihy and Vinnie Horan (Capt) (0-2 1f)
Subs Used: Brian Cassidy and Eoin Creedon.