Finnane goal crucial as Ballinagore beat Rosemount

A strong defensive effort and a goal scored just before half time helped Ballinagore register their second win in the Intermediate Championship in an overcast Ballynacargy on Sunday afternoon. The game began with Rosemount leading the initial exchanges with a couple of attempts, one wide and one into the Ballinagore goalkeeper’s hands.

Ballinagore then settled into the game and opened the scoring in the third minute with a free from Tommy McDaniel after a foul on Brandon Carey.

Ballinagore pressed on further and a subsequent free was missed by McDaniel after being fouled on the left hand side of the Ballinagore attack. Following a yellow card for Cathal Kelly, Rosemount got a lift with two scores in a minute courtesy of Lorcan Daly and Ben Cox both from play in the 9th minute. Both involved good team moves with the Daly score coming through several sets of hands.

In the 13th minute, McDaniel tied up the game again with a lovely score following great work from Darragh Seery, a factor consistent throughout the game. Further periods of pressure two minutes later from Ballinagore yielded another Tommy McDaniel free following a pick off the ground.

Rosemount’s Matthew Cox knocked over a big score just inside the two point arc to level the teams again in the 16th minute.

Ballinagore pushed ahead with two consecutive scores in the 19th minute; the first, a lovely team move saw Seery feed Colin Coleman who finished neatly, the second another McDaniel free after referee Declan Nugent brought the ball forward following an infringement.

Rosemount followed with three scores of their own. The first from Padraig Geoghegan after the Ballinagore defence had been turned over; then Declan Mullen added a free from the ground to even up the game at five points each, before Matthew Cox gave Rosemount a hard earned lead.

The lead was not to last long however as the intensity and excitement were raised ahead of the half time break. Ballinagore worked a free from a long range wide, however in the last minute of the half they were to jump in front after a great ball from Brandon Carey gave Cody Finnane the chance to raise the green flag. This left the halftime scoresheet showing Ballinagore at 1-5 to Rosemount's 0-6.

Upon resumption Rosemount introduced David O’Reilly who immediately made an impact. Within a minute of the restart, O’Reilly scored a free off his left and a minute later Declan Mullen added another free to bring the teams level again just two minutes into the second half. Before another minute had elapsed O’Reilly popped over another fine shot off his left.

Ballinagore needed to respond and in the fifth minute, Philip Reynolds brought the teams level again with a point from play. The momentum swing was in Ballinagore’s favour and they pushed on with further scores from Renolds, Robinson and Finnane with Finnane’s point coming after a strong run through the centre.

At this stage Ballinagore held a three point lead with 14 minutes gone in the second half. Rosemount’s O’Reilly then hit the mark to bring the gap back to two points. Tommy McDaniels was next on the scoresheet with a great two point effort following a short 45 and with 10 minutes left to play he was to stretch the lead to five points after a 45.

Rosemount were now under a lot of pressure and Declan Mullen reduced the gap to four points with a free taken from the ground. O’Reilly added to this again with another free off his left with just three minutes to play.

In injury time, Tommy McDaniel knocked over the insurance score to bring his tally to eight points for the evening. David O’Reilly wrapped up the scoring with a late free but Ballinagore had enough to register their second win in this season's Intermediate Championship.

Scorers – Ballinagore: T McDaniel 0-8 (1tp, 3f); C Finnane 1-1; P Reynolds 0-2; C Coleman and E Robinson 0-1 each. Rosemount: D O’Reilly 0-5 (3f); D Mullen 0-3 (3f); M Cox 0-2; B Cox, P Geoghegan and L Daly 0-1 each.

Ballinagore – Cathal Daly; Conan Feery, Enda Claffey, Peter Deegan; Cathal Kelly, Darragh Seery, Robbie Keegan; Eoin Robinson, Cody Finnane; Philip Reynolds, Tommy McDaniel, David Keegan; Colin Coleman, Luke Seery, Brandon Carey. Subs used: Paddy Ennis, Peter Reynolds (temp.).

Rosemount – David Fox; Ben O’Brien, Padraig Nestor, Luke Kelly; Lorcan Daly, Boidu Sayeh, Cathal Byrne; Plunkett Maxwell, David ‘DD’ McCormack; Andrew Geoghegan, Padraig Geoghegan, Ben Cox; Liam Maxwell, Declan Mullen, Matthew Cox. Sub used: David O’Reilly.

Referee – Declan Nugent.