We suffered defeat in the county football championship quarter final last Wednesday week to near neighbours Ballyhooly who now go on to contest the semifinal against the winners of Araglin v Whitechurch. This was a game that really could have gone either way in the second half and some costly misses and poor decision making cost us dearly in a very close encounter.

Ballyhooly started the better and raced into an early lead with three points inside the first ten minutes to our one point from Vincent Burke. They had their goal after fifteen mins to put them ahead by five points but over the next ten minutes we fought back with an outstanding goal from Vincent Burke after great build up play from Alan Sheedy and Rob McHugh.

We tacked on some nice points from Eoin O’Regan, Jerome Fitzgerald and Kenneth Barry to draw level and from here to half time the sides exchanged points to leave it level at the half 1-7 a piece. We started the second half brightly with our back line getting on top but could not turn the pressure into scores and it was Ballyhooly who stretched their lead once again with some well taken points. We stayed in touch with some scores from Alan Sheedy and an Eoin O’Regan free but unfortunately we couldn’t take the lead when chances presented themselves.

With five minutes remaining and only a point in arrears we surged up field and had Ballyhooly under pressure but credit to them they defended in numbers and were able to break down field and get the last score of the game when they pointed a close in free to win by two points and proceed to the semifinals.

We wish Ballyhooly all the best in their quest for county honours and they will be hoping to go one better then last year’s semifinal defeat. On the night we just didn’t seem to play well enough in the second half and the loss of Haulie Burke(inj) and Jamie Sheedy proved to be too much as these two players are always our two top performers in football.

Team: Stephen Donegan, Darren Roche, Brian Sheedy, Brendan Hayes, Richard Burke, Brian O’Reilly, Rob McHugh, Sean Lynch, Jerome Fitzgerald(0-1), Colman O’Reilly, Eoin McHugh, Eoin O’Regan(0-2), Vincent Burke(1-1), Alan Sheedy, Kenneth Barry(0-5), Subs: Paul Burke for Richard Burke. Niall Barry for Jerome Fitzgerald