Senior Football ACFL II

Shamrocks 1.7  -  0.9 Ballyholland

23rd Apr 2007

The hoodoo is stronger than ever.

Due to a sweetly-struck ’45 with the last kick of the ball from Kevin McGuigan, you now have to go back seven full years to find the last time an adult Ballyholland team beat the Shamrocks.

I cannot think of another occasion during those seven seasons when so much was tilted in Ballyholland’s favour before the throw-in. The Harps had the advantage of home turf, of pure form, of being able to select something approaching a first XV.

Yet the truth is the Shamrocks just about, and once again, deserved it.

They may have got the rub of the green on more than one occasion from refereeing decisions, but over the 60 minutes they played the more direct football in attack, the more disciplined football further back – and they got the resultant reward.

As you would thoroughly expect, Seamrogai have taken a lot of pleasure from maintaining this record over the years. In truth though, the celebrations on this occasion were not those born out of rivalry, but instead were overwhelmingly covered in relief.

With last season’s Division I debacle continuing into this campaign, all told it was the first victory the club have picked up since last August. Lifting that monkey of their back meant so, so much to the men in green.

So full credit to them. At the same time though, it’s difficult to strray from the opinion that if Ballyholland had have been able to up their game even just a little, they would have been the ones celebrating.

Four days previous had seen the Harps put together a tremendous second half performance against Annaclone, full of skill, energy and conviction. This was something completely different.

Indeed, if the first half of this game was notable for anything, it was for the abysmal standard of play. It was a half full of misplaced passes, dropped catches and missed opportunities. A half that strangely lacked a derby feel or atmosphere.

And both sides were equally culpable, which if nothing else kept it close. Not once during the opening thirty minutes was more than a solitary point between them.

Harps had the advantage of the breeze and knocked over the first score of the night through Tony Havern, They fell behind briefly due to of a brace of frees from Chris Coffey – a Minor Championship medal winner with the Harps in 1991 - but restored the lead before the interval, courtesy of a trio of scores from county man Ronan Murtagh receiving only one further reply from Coffey.

Those two men, Murtagh and Coffey, were easily the most important players on show during that time, and not just for their scoring ability. Murtagh, as ever, was lively and dangerous and looked a class above affairs, while Coffey’s knack for winning the breaking-ball was tantamount to Shamrocks ploy of slowing the game down against the wind.

Taking the wind at the turnaround would have made Seamrogai slight favourites in most people’s eyes, even if they hadn’t displayed much attacking conviction up to then. But by the 10 minute mark, things had swung very much back the other way.

Tom Courtney and Ronan Murtagh had traded fine scores from distance by this stage, probably the two best scores of the night on reflection, when Shamrocks wing-forward Stevie O’Hagan got embroiled in a messy situation after a restart. The result was a straight red card.

Shamrocks were a bit shaken. Almost immediately afterwards Paudie McKernan punched wide with the goal at his mercy, and then Ronan Murtagh sent over a long-range free to finally put a small piece of daylight between the sides.

It surely had to be Ballyholland’s night now.

Straw-clutching took on a new level, as Paul McCartan elected to draw veteran Collie Burns out of retirement once again. The ex-county man was surely too old to seriously influence proceedings, but having broke Ballyholland’s hearts on more than few occasions in the past, his introduction at least brought a psychological impact.

Lo and behold, just a few minutes later, Shamrocks were back in front. A tough free from Murtagh fell short and into the hands of Conor Farrell. A long hoof from ‘Sody’ found Coffey unmarked, who in turn drilled the ball straight into his full-forward line. A slip from Ballyholland’s full-back let Tom Courtney in, and the youngster made no mistake.

When Shamrocks almost repeated the dose just 60 seconds later, only for Courtney to skewer his shot wide, suddenly you got the feeling that it was, once again, going to be the Shamrock’s night.

The final quarter was by far the most entertaining. Robbie Quinn got in on the act against his old club, taking two fine scores, and Murtagh again found his mark from distance, but further frees from Coffey and Kevin McGuigan made it all-square as we entered injury time.

Ballyholland very much had their chance to win it, when an unmarked Tony Havern sent his fisted effort against the wrong side of the post.

Then less than a minute later, the Harps defence performed heroically to block three shots in a row and send the ball out for a ’45. It was by this stage a wet night. The ball was heavy, and with all their recognised free-takers either injured or retired, Shamrocks had no option but to bring a defender up to strike the kick, the last kick of the game.

Practical realities suggested it was going to end in a draw.

But like everyone else who has been witness to this fixture in recent seasons, I somehow knew that the ball was going to head straight over the black spot.

And as it turned out, McGuigan just couldn’t have struck it any better.

Best performers on the night for the Harps were Joe Murphy, Damian McCrink and especially Ronan Murtagh. Best for the visitors were Mark Digney, Gareth Loughran, Ciaran Courtney and the influential Chris Coffey.

Player of the Match: Chris Coffey

Ballyholland Team: K Murphy; J Murphy, D Campbell, C Murtagh, P McAnulty, D McCrink, E Campbell; J Patterson, P Murphy; T Havern (0-1), R Murtagh (0-6, 3f), P McKernan; R Quinn (0-2), M Shields, C Sands. Subs used: C Barry, A Haughey.

Opponents Team: C Farrell; P Cribben, M Digney, L Feenan; G Loughran, K McGuigan (0-2f), K Coffey, C Courtney, P Courtney; D McCartan, C Coffey (0-4f), S O’Hagan; A McGuinness, M Rafferty; T Courtney (1-1). Subs used: C Burns.

Referee: Gavin Corrigan

Match Report by: Anthony

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