Ballina Stephenites 1-15 North London Shamrocks 0-10
Ballina Stephenites were composed in the first quarter and efficient in the last, but in between they stumbled and struggled against a valiant effort from North London Shamrocks to secure a first-ever win by a London club in the AIB Connacht club SFC.
The Exiles will fly home tomorrow and in their baggage will be their failure to exploit a strong breeze in the first half of this fixture at the Connacht Centre of Excellence, after which they trailed by 1-06 to 0-07.
In the early stages, Ballina Stephenites were full of clever, thoughtful running that opened up the Shamrocks' defence and created good scoring chances from advanced positions.
Luke Doherty fisted the opening score over the bar, Dylan Thornton followed up with another from the left wing and a couple more good chances went abegging, all while the visitors were starved of ball and struggling to keep up.
Joe McGill got Shamrocks off the mark with a fine two-pointer in the tenth minute but two minutes later Sam Callinan breezed through the opposition defence to feed the ball across to Doherty and while the full-forward’s first effort to flick the ball to the net was blocked, it fell perfectly for him to pick up the rebound and blast home.
Five of the next six points went the way of the Shamrocks, including another double from McGill, but they hit the post with a goal effort from Michael O’Reilly and let another couple of opportunities slip away.
A 1-03 to 0-07 advantage approaching half-time looked anaemic, and once Callinan, Conor McStay and Murray pointed in a brief flurry of Ballina offence before the break, it was hard to see a way back.
Paddy Dolan split the posts with his first possession after half-time however and through sheer force of grit and will, exemplified by players like Nathan McIlwaine, Daniel Clarke and Liam Gordon, Shamrocks edged their way back to level terms with ten minutes to play.
Ballina were struggling to match Shamrocks in the breaking ball battle at midfield, the defensive axis of Callinan and Seán Regan that was so imperious in the first half was broken up by an injury to Regan, and up front they took on a series of speculative shots from distance, attempting to use the wind but only adding to the level of hope and belief in the North London players and supporters as they did so.
Ultimately the tactic of shooting from range paid off as first Frank Irwin, Mike Murray and then Ben Thornton all split the posts from two-point range in the space of three minutes, turning a dogfight into something more like an exhibition for the closing minutes.
Ballina Stephenites: David Clarke; Liam Golden, Seán Regan, Luke Jordan; David Tighe (0-01), Sam Callinan (0-02), Daniel Feeney; Mike Murray (0-03, 1tp), Frank Irwin (0-02, 1tp); Niall Feeney, Conor McStay (0-02), Dylan Thornton (0-01); Evan Regan (0-01 free), Luke Doherty (1-01), Ciarán Treacy.
Subs: Keith Tighe for Feeney (25), Barry Walsh for Treacy (39), Ben Thornton (0-02, 1tp) for S Regan (39), Luke Feeney for E Regan (56), Ciarán Sweeney for Murray (60).
North London Shamrocks: Ronan McGeehin; Eoin Flanagan, Ben McKenna, Nathan McIlwaine; Conor McKelvey, Marc Friel, Tom Lenihan; Daniel Clarke, Liam Murphy; Joe McGill (0-06, 1tp, 1tpf, 0-02 frees), Michael Miller (0-01), Ciarán Diver; Michael O'Reilly, Michael Carroll (0-02), Rory Morrin.
Subs: Paddy Dolan (0-01) for Lenihan (30), Darragh Spillane for Flanagan (42), John McDyre for McKelvey (52).
Referee: James Molloy (Salthill-Knocknacarra).
