Junior Football Championship (Round 3)

St Josephs 1-11 Ballinagore 1-07

Two out of three ain’t bad is a famous song by Meatloaf and certainly our second win in the championship puts us in a decent position to push on for a place in the knock out stages after this four point win over neighbours Ballinagore today at Rosemount. Coming off a poor result against CFCW two weeks ago it was vital to try and bounce back with a win today. That we won is the main thing and at times we played very well while were decidedly ropey at other times in what was a well contested game throughout. A quick start from both sides saw Ballinagore open the scores with a pointed free inside 50 seconds but this was swiftly cancelled out by a Niall Moran score to leave the sides level at 0-1 each with less than two minutes played. A free from Jordan Mc Donnell after four minutes put St Josephs into the lead and though Ballinagore levelled matters in the 6th minute, St Josephs held a lead for much of the half going 0-8 to 0-4 ahead before a late free from Ballinagore left us three ahead at half time on a score of 0-8 to 0-5. St Josephs were the more impressive side in the opening half and indeed we probably should have been ahead by three or four more points at that stage. The third quarter proved the exact opposite as Ballinagore had their best spell in the match. Early on we had a couple of attacks which came to naught and it was from a breakdown in our play that led to the games opening goal. Possession was coughed up on the Ballinagore 45 and from that they moved swiftly down field to goal after a good passage of play to level the match at 0-8 to 1-05. Ballinagore moved a point ahead in the 7th minute before missing a great goal chance to go further ahead after 9 minutes. St Josephs were a bit rattled at this stage but steadied matters before the water break to trail by 0-9 to 1-07 midway through the half. The break suited us as we regathered our composure and got on top in most sectors in the final quarter. Heading into the final couple of minutes we had moved ahead again by the minimum on a score of 0-11 to 1-07. The game was still in the melting pot but the games defining moment came in the final minute when a fine passage of play involving Mikey Lynam, Jordan Mc Donnell and Dean Slevin saw Dean fire home a great goal to settle the issue. The final minutes saw Ballinagore try to get through for a goal in added time but it wasn’t to be as St Josephs gained the win by a margin of four points. It was a good result to get as our record against Ballinagore historically has been poor so it was great to get that particular monkey off our backs.

There is improvement needed in some areas but certainly this was a good step up from the previous game. Next up we face Bunbrosna in two weeks time in what is proving to be a very open championship so far.

Team:Niall Rabbette,Pearse Weir Norris,Alan Farrell,Kieran Boyle,Brian Killian,Aaron Mc Donnell,Brian Fitzgerald,Mikey Lynam,Dean Slevin,Jordan Mc Donnell,Ros Elliffe,Andy Scally,Padraig Moran,Andy Conway,Niall Moran. Subs introduced; Eoin Kelly & Jerry Gleeson