Shanballymore got off to a winning start to this year’s 2018 Avondhu Div2 Football league with a good performance and a good win over Kilshanning on last Sunday afternoon. The Game was played in Shanballymore with the pitch in perfect condition and overhead conditions Chilly. With a number of our regular starters injured or away it showed a good strength in the squad to record this good victory over a nimble Kilshannig outfit

Dave Twomey who was elected Team Manager at our recent AGM introduced the rest of his Management team before the match. All in the dressing room were delighted with his backroom team of John Walsh, Pat Flynn and Brendan Morrissey who bring great experience, knowledge of the game and a great passion for success for Shanballymore football to the fold. Onwards and upwards.

Very disappointing on last Sunday morning that the allocated Referee failed to turn up and with the clock ticking towards 30 minutes past throw in time and no sign of an appearance it was agreed for Injured Shanballymore Player Eoin McHugh to take the Whistle. Both Clubs agreed after the game that Eoin did an excellent job giving an exhibition of how a game should be marshalled ensuring the game flowed freely and at the same time catching any frees that should be caught for both sides.

From the off Shanballymore were on the attack with Stephen Donegan steady as always in the goals and defending tightly outside him with Padraig Fitzgerald, Barry Sheedy & Richard Burke Teak tough in the full back line working very well with the Speedy half Back Line of Richard Hallinan, Colman O’Reilly and Darragh Palmer to get the ball Quickly up the field. However, in the early phases scores were slow to come and the winter rustiness was still to be shaken off. The pressure was kept on all over the field with Sean Lynch and Rob McHugh getting onto a lot of ball and pushing forward the scores started to come. Eoin O’Regan opened our account with a nicely taken score followed Quickly with 3 from Winston, one from Alan Sheedy and one from Vincent Burke. Shanballymore were now going very well racing into a 6 point to no score Lead and were conceding nothing. At the halfway point of the first half Kilshannig got their First score and were to add just one more before Half Time. Shanballymore registered 4 more before the half time whistle With Shaun Cronin working the ball well in the half forward and Darragh getting in for 2 points, 1 from Haulie Burke and Winston again getting in on the action. With Half Time approaching Shanballymore were pushing on hard and were rewarded with a great goal dipping into the top corner off the evergreen boot of Winston Barry. At the half Time Whistle Shanballymore had a built up a strong lead of 1-10 to 0-2.

However, turning in to the wind it proved this was a lead that we needed to have.

The Second half saw matters Change and Kilshannig hit a purple patch early in the half with the wind at their backs scoring 3 points and a goal without reply. The Shanballymore Backs were under a lot of pressure and dealing with a lot of play in this early part of the second half and we were finding it difficult out the field to get a hand on our own Kick Outs with Kilshannig dominating. Eventually as the half moved out we stuck to our task and managed to get a bit of momentum together and pushed on and got two points off the free running Darragh Palmer and a surging run by Colman Reilly from Centre back resulted in another well taken point from near the right-hand sideline.  Kilshannig continued to put pressure on and got the goal they were looking for following a number of attempts being blocked out by the Shanballymore full back line. Killshannig finished the half with 3 more points but Shanballymore finished well also getting two good points from Alan Sheedy and Darragh Palmer to make sure we took the points on offer on the day Closing out with a win on a Score line of 1-14 to 1-08.

Overall a good result for our first day out but plenty to work on to ensure we get a full hour’s performance in our next outing. Our 1^st Half was very Good; second half was patchy but a win is a win and plenty positives to take from this game.

Shanballymore: 1) Steven Donegan, 2) Richard Burke, 3) Barry Sheedy, 4) Padraig Fitzgerald,5) Darragh Palmer (0-4), 6) Colman O’Reilly (0-1), 7) Richard Hallinan, 8) Sean Lynch, 9) Robert McHugh, 10) Eoin O’Regan (0-1), 11) Haulie Burke (0-1), 12) Shaun Cronin, 13) Alan Sheedy (0-2), 14) Vincent Burke (0-1), 15) Winston Barry (1-05)

Subs: Paul Burke for Sean Cronin, Colin Palmer for Kenneth Barry, Charlie McCarthy, Brian Sheedy, Brendan Hayes, Jimmy Burke,