Feis Cup Preliminary Round - Ballinlough 1-05 Skryne 0-10

Ballinlough 1-05 Skryne 0-10

Ballinlough conceded home advantage in this Feis Cup match as their newly laid pitch was deemed unplayable earlier in the day. Despite this they began brightly and Peader Byrne had 1-2 on the board to Skryne’s solitary point from a Neal Burke free kick in the first ten minutes. On a heavy pitch – difficult for any good football – both sides contributed to an entertaining and closely fought game. Skryne had the advantage of the slight breeze in the first half and fought back to level the scores at half time 0-5 to that early 1-2 for the Reds.

Ballinlough struggled to put the ball between the posts when they were on top and 15 minutes of the second half had elapsed before they registered their next point by which time the Blues had added three of their own. In fact Ballinlough scored only one point from open play for the hour while Skryne managed seven with all their five points in the second half coming from excellent teamwork.

The blues fielded without their three County players and this and some poor ball handling may have accounted for their very inept first half performance. They regrouped in the second period and finished somewhat stronger than the Reds. As stated previously both sides were guilty of some wayward shooting with Skryne hitting 12 wides while Ballinlough had considerably more. There were some good performances from both sides and it was difficult to single anybody out but special mention must go to home-team goalkeeper Ian Gillett who made two brilliant saves in the second half to keep the Blues lead intact when they were under severe pressure from the visitors. Niall Lenehan, Conor O’Brien, Paddy Fox and Neal Burke also showed up well for the winners.

Skryne – Ian Gillett. Niall Lenehan, Martin Mulvaney, Mark Jordan. James Looby, Ciaran Lenehan, Stephen O’Brien. Aidan Tuite, Tomás McKeown. Neal Burke (0-4, 3frees), Conor O’Brien (0-2), Bryan Davis (0-1). Paddy Fox (0-2), John Morley (0-1), Jason Fox.
Subs used – Declan Morley, Niall Morley and Eoghan Greene.

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