Shanballymore 1-06 Liscarroll 0-04
Last Sunday at our home venue we put in an outstanding performance against Liscarroll to come away with a hard fought win.

This was against a good strong Liscarroll team who should along with Killavullen, Ballyclough and Kilshannig be in the mix for League and Championship honours this year.

Exchanges were tough in the first half with both teams playing some good football, but both defences stood firm to keep scores to a minimum and as a result we held a slender one point lead at half time 0-3 to 0-2.

Our scores in the first half came from Alan Sheedy (0-1), Eoin O’Regan (0-1), Eoin McHugh (0-1) and we were unlucky not to have a goal as well after a good run by the hard working Richard Hallihan who saw his rasping shot go narrowly wide in the 20th minute.

We took control around midfield in the second half with Sean Lynch and Eoin McHugh winning most of the kick-outs and driving down field to set up attacks for our forwards.

We should have put the game out of sight, however like the Killavullen game we were again guilty of missing some scoreable chances which could have proved costly.

Our backs were outstanding though with full back Jonathan Dennehy controlling the square and using the ball wisely. He was assisted by the hard working Padraig Fitzgerald and Robbie McHugh, who ran the ball out of defence at every opportunity.

Outside them we had a half back line of Jerome, Hallie and Colman – they won a lot of breaking ball and were always available to take on the Liscarroll defence to set up attack after attack.

As mentioned we had chances to put this game to bed and leading 0-5 to 0-3 Liscarroll almost got in for a goal – only for the brave goalkeeping of Stephen Donegan and along with a goalline clearance from Hallie to keep our lead intact.

This was the wake up call we needed and almost immediately we surged up field and after good play from Brian O’Reilly at full forward Vince Burke was on hand to score the games only goal.

That gave us a sizeable lead which would see us home and take the league points on offer. We finished with a beautifully worked point which resulted in Jamie popping over from 30 yards to put us in a good lead with time almost up.

We held out for the win, with Eoin McHugh popping a late free.

Shanballymore can now look forward to the next round of the league as we meet last year’s Division Two League and Junior B Championship winners Ballyhooly on Friday night.

Well done to the lads on a hard fought win against a strong Liscarroll team.

Last Sunday we had a few missing for different reasons, hopefully we will have a healthy and fit squad to pick from soon.

Hallie Burke for Brian Sheedy (half time inj), Shaun Cronin for Richard Hallihan (50th min), Richie Burke & Dave Twomey