A win for Ballyclough in concluding Div 1 Football league game
May 25, 2025
Last night in Killavullen, on a rock-hard pitch, that looked excellent, but very greasy after the sprinkling of rain, that fell throughout the game, Killavullen brought their division 1 League Program for 2025 to an end, with defeat to Ballyclough. After contesting the last three league finals, this year, Killavullen finished in mid-table with the final to be contested on Wednesday, June 4th in Buttevant between Mallow and Charleville.
With nothing on the line, Killavullen and Ballyclough served up a good game of football, to be fair to both teams. Eddie Cotter opened the scoring for Killavullen only for Ballyclough to equalize shortly thereafter. The Ballyclough full forward line was very good on the night, with the man in the middle, Damien Buckley pivotal to a lot of their success, and he showed power, and a little bit of finesse, to gather a ball, shrug off our full back, and finished emphatically to the net past Billy Norris in our goals to open up a decent lead. That lead was stretched out further when their lively corner forward, and both of the players on the flanks could fit that description cut inside our trailing corner back, and in attempting to score a point, the ball went under the crossbar, and into our net. We then lost Patrick Angland to a quad injury and Seamus Cronin was introduced in his place, and Seamus went on to have a very fine game. Ballyclough added another point from play, but we received a lifeline into the game, when Colm Looney was bundled over in the box, and the referee, Michael Sheehan awarded a penalty. Eoin Birchill dispatched it with assurance into the net. Ballyclough were to respond and score another well worked team point, but we replied with a brace of scores, the first from Mark Nagle, and the second from Eddie Cotter. Ballyclough responded with a point from a close in free, but Eddie got that point back for us again, from open play.
We lost Seamus Fox to a nasty and painful hand injury after an innocuous challenge forced him to fall awkwardly on the hard ground, and he was replaced by David Walsh. Colm Looney scored a point for us, and Ronan Barry finished the scoring for us for the opening half, but just enough time remained for Ballyclough to pop over one last point, to leave us only two points adrift at the short whistle, 1-06 to 2-05, which was admirable after the dreadful start.
Killavullen rotated their goal keepers for the second half, as they seek to find a replacement for Michael Walsh, now living it up, in Chicago for the summer on a J1 visa. Ballyclough, playing now towards the Monanimy castle end took a grip around the middle of the field, when we struggled to win primary possession and they reeled off four points in quick succession, to open up a commanding lead again. That lead would have been more, but for our replacement goalkeeper, in Darragh O Connor pulling off an excellent full-length diving save, from a good Ballyclough shot, that skidded and zipped off the hard ground, making the save more impressive. Eoin Birchill scored a close in free for us, after descent from the Ballyclough line saw the referee advance the free, some 50 metres. Ballyclough scored again to bring their tally to 2-10 but Sean Plamer, industrious as always on the night scored a lovely score on the run. We scored a point from Eoin again, after he remained calm in and around their goals, that was now under a considerable siege. Colm Looney was unfortunate to see a shot from him, rebound off the cross bar, and when he gathered it again, his goal bound shot was cleared off the line, by the retreating corner back.
That goal that we had been threatening to get for close of five minutes, we had earlier failed to capitalize with a two on one situation came when Sean Palmer finished unequivocally to the net with a driven shot from the ground, after the ball squirmed around the goal line for a while, and broke out to Sean, who had no hesitation in applying the powerful drive, that beat all comers in front of him. Eoin then brought us to a level score with a free, to complete an impressive comeback.
However, we did not press on, and it was Ballyclough who scored next, after a 45 meter shot that had a low trajectory seemed to squirm through some defender’s hands, change the flight of the ball and deflected past a helpless Darragh in our goals. Ballyclough regained the momentum in and around midfield, and seizing their opportunity, reeling off three further points, the latter from Damien Buckley again, emphasizing his worth to the team. We pressed and got repelled by the resolute Ballyclough rear guard, and passed over another goal opportunity, but we did get the final score of the game, courtesy of Billy Norris.
League form is all about getting your best players on the field as often as possible, and that did not happen for us in 2025, for a myriad of reasons. However the league does present opportunities for others to shine, and that certainly did occur in 2025, so positives to take from the league before our championship begins in Junior A Football. Our opening game is against Kilworth on the 26th of July.
The team and those that scored were;
- Billy Norris (0-01)
- Cian O Connor
- Kevin Fox
- Patrick Angland
- Sean Palmer(1-01)
- Jamie Magner
- Niall Feaheny
- Mickey O Connor
- Ronan Barry (0-01)
- Padraig Cronin
- Eddie Cotter (0-03)
- Seamus Fox
- Eoin Birchill(1-03, 1- 00 (Pen), 0-02F)
- Colm Looney (0-01)
- Mark Nagle (0-01)
Substitutes Utilized;
- Seamus Cronin for Patrick Angland (injured)
- David Walsh for Seamus Fox (injured)
- Darragh O Connor for Billy Norris
- Billy Norris for Mark Nagle
The Killavullen shop was again in operation, and between this game and an earlier juvenile blitz, it was very busy on the day / night Well done to all involved.