Ballintubber 1-8
Moy Davitts 0-9
By Colm Gannon in Clogher
A lucky goal from Padraic O'Connor three minutes before half time was the differnce between Ballintubber and Moy Davitts in Ray Prendergast Park on a wet Sunday afternoon in the club championship. O'Connor lined up a free 40m out from goal and didn't get under it enough, but the ball was arrowing for the top corner of the net. Pat Clarke in the Moy Davitts goal left the ball to James Mulderrig who jumped to claim it. But the ball slipped through his grasp and into the top corner of the net to give Ballintubber and somewhat undeserved lead.
The east Mayo men were more up for the contest in the early stages in the opening half and only for a series of bad wides they should have been ahead by more by the time the Ballintubber goal arrived. Alan Dillon opened the scoring from a free after a minute as both sides engaged in a bout of shadow boxing, Moy Davitts were winning the battle on the field, but were unable to convert it into scores. Stephen Healy finally found the right range for the visitors three minutes into the action with a nice point from out on the right hand side of the field.
Conor Jordan opened his account with a good score five minutes in to put Moy Davitts into a deserved lead as they really started to put it up to the home side in a physical encounter. As the rain fell, neither side could get their shooting boots lined up right and the fourth score of the contest didn't arrive until Damien McGing, picked up the ball in the left hand corner ducked inside his man struck it over from 35 yards out.
Cormac Healy landed a free from distance to put Moy Davitts back into the lead, five minutes before O'Connor's goal which decided the tie at the end. The centre half back for Moy Davitts landed his second point also from a free to reply for Moy Davitts after the Ballintubber goal. O'Connor got in on the end of a quick fire move to land a point for Ballintubber three minutes into injury time to cancel out a Conor Jordan point and put Ballintubber into a 1-3 to 0-5 lead at the turn around.
It took eight minutes to elapse in the second half for either side to hit the target, Alan Dillon was the man to do the damage from a free, that score was followed up by a Alan Plunkett point. He finished off move after Alan Dillion did the donkey work to create the chance. Dillion landed his third point of the game from another free to extend his sides lead to four points. Moy Davitts finally got on the scoreboard thanks to a Cormac Healy point from a free 40 meters out at the midway point of the half. Stephen Healy cut the gap back to two points shortly after when he won a long ball in turned and shot over the bar from 21 yards.
Play was held up for a few minutes after when Jimmy Byrne collided with fencing on the far side of the field, Byrne picked himself up and tired to play on but had to give in come of a couple of minutes later.
Plunkett was able to extend the lead to three points again when he broke on to a ball from Dillion with ten minutes left on the clock. Cormac Healy saw straight red for the face of O'Connor with ten minutes left on the clock and with it seemed to go their chances of pulling something out of the game. But seven minutes later Tom Early was dismissed for what seemed a very slight incident. Two scores from Conor Jordan were bisected by a Padraic O'Connor free to leave the home side winners by two points.
Ballintubber: Noel Gibbons; Cathal Halinan, John Feeney, Paul Early;Myles Kelly, Tom Early, Danny Geraghty; Jason Gibbons, Dean Gavin; Damien Coleman, Alan Dillon (0-3, 3f ), Padraic O'Connor (1-2, 1f ), Damien McGing (0-1 ), Kevin McGuinness, Alan Plunkett (0-2 ). Subs: Cillian O'Connor for Damien McGing (40 minutes ), Eoghan Vahey for Myles Kelly (43 minutes ), Gary Dillon for Kevin McGuinness (60 minutes )
Moy Davitts: Pat Clarke; Oisin Quinn, Warren McDonagh, Conal Quinn; Marc Howley, Cormac Healy (0-3, 3f ), Darragh Quinn; Paul Quinn, Daniel Igoe; Jimmy Byrne, Gary Ruane, Tomás Mulderrig; Conor Jordan(0-4, 4f ), Stepehen Healy (0-2 ), James Mulderig. Ronan Healy for Tomás Mulderig (30 minutes ), James Byrne for Daniel Igoe
Ref:Liam Higgins (Ballina )
