Progress to the Football SF's at the expense of Ballyclough
September 29, 2025
Yesterday in balmy Autumnal conditions with the foliage changing colours in the adjacent tree’s, Killavullen, playing much better than in their previous game against Charleville, overcame Ballyclough in the Divisional quarter-final to advance to the semi-finals in this year’s Junior A Football championship.
The initial five minutes of the game was a cagey affair with both teams finding out about the opposition and probing with their attack. Ballyclough was the first to score through Mark Heffernan who was a handful throughout the game, with his speed and directness causing problems. We equalized in the next minute, from Liam Cronin, with a lovely floating point from out the field, over the centre of the goals. We worked a goal scoring opportunity very well in the follow up minute, from Seamus Fox and Brian Cotter, and it was cooly dispatched to the net by Eoin Birchill. Jack O Shea replied for Ballyclough, before Mickey O Connor scored a fine point for us, and then, we stretched our lead out, with a two-point score, from a dead ball situation, scored by Eoin again. He has missed an early similar free, but learnt the lesson well, to fade the ball gracefully over the bar. Ballyclough again replied through Cormac Fitzgerald, in the 13th minute, a surname that evokes memories of their great player of former years, Liam. Again, we replied with Seamus O Mahoney scoring a nice point, after initial good work from Eddie Cotter, in and around midfield, where Killavullen were winning a lot of primary possessions, and Ronan Barry was very influential. Kevin Fox replaced Cian O Connor at full back, as we were living dangerously with the pace of their full forward line, and green space in front of them to exploit. Eoin kicked another two point score for us, from open play but Ballyclough were not going away and replied through their centre forward. Again Seamus tacked over another point, but we dropped four scorable chances into the grateful arms of the Ballyclough netminder in Eoghan Finnegan, scores that we should ordinarily be scoring. We got a reprieve just before the half time whistle, when Ballyclough got inside our full back line, but Damien Buckley blazed the ball over the bar, when a goal was at his mercy. They then missed a close in free as well, leaving the score at 1-08 to 0-05 at the interval. The win was trappy in that opening half, blowing and aiding Killavullen, but swirling about, and that contributed to five wides for Killavullen and seven for Ballyclough.
On the resumption, Eoin scored another free but Ballyclough got that back in the 4th minute, from Jack O Shea again. Damien Buckley added another point to cut the arrears. Sean Palmer, often the outlet and willing runner from the back line, scored a great point for us, in the 16th minute of the half, a half where our dominance in and around midfield was not exploited, with too much elaboration in some of our attacks. Ballyclough replied with their youthful and lively corner forward, who was having a battle royal, with our equally young and mobile corner back, Thomas Fennell and every ball was nick and tuck between them to see who would win out. Damien Buckley brought their tally to nine points with a pointed free, but Mark Nagle scored an important point for us in reply with his cultured left foot. Ballyclough were right in the mix for honors with 10 minutes to go, when Adam Finnegan scored a booming two-point score to bring their tally to 0-11 as against 1-11 to us. The cause of Ballyclough was not helped by a straight red card picked up by one of their players for a needless indiscretion when the referee was very close to him.
We needed a lift and Colm Hayes was introduced for Seamus O Mahony. Ballyclough got the next score though, from a free from Damien Buckley. However, our big players stood up, and we got in command again, in and around midfield. Eoin was unlucky to see an effort from a free strike the post high up, and was cleared but in a move that decided the game, Ronan Barry caught a great high fielding centre in and around midfield and off loaded it to Brian Cotter, who found Mark Nagle, and with a swivel and deft dummy, created the space to finish cooly to the net, and put daylight between the teams again. Colm Hayes scored a beauty of a point when off balance after good initial work by Niall Feaheny and Eoin Birchill scored another goal for us, to put a gloss on the scoreboard. Ballyclough got two points in closing out the game from their full forward again, and another free from Damien Buckley. We introduced Seamus Cronin and David Walsh for Mikey O Connor and Seamus Fox and these two substitutes combined to set up another goal scoring chance, that just was cleared before the final whistle was sounded by the referee, Aidan Hyland, who had a fine game, and was very consistent with his calls
Killavullen would have been pleased with the overall team performance and will play Liscarroll Churchtown Gaels on the weekend of the 11th of October in the semi-final. Ballyhooly play Charleville, in the other semi-final. As with all dual clubs now, managing of injuries and playing demands will be crucial as next up, is a hurling semi-final against Dromina next weekend.
The team was;
- Michael Walsh
- Tomas Fennell
- Cian O Connor
- Pa Angland
- Sean Palmer (0-01)
- Liam Cronin (0-01)
- Brian Cotter
- Ronan Barry (0-01)
- Eoin Birchill (2-06, 0-02 x 2, 0-02F)
- Seamus Fox
- Mikey O Connor (0-01)
- Eddie Cotter
- Mark Nagle (1-01, 0-1F)
- Niall Feaheny
- Seamus O Mahony (0-02)
The substitutes were;
- Kevin Fox for Cian O Connor
- Colm Hayes (0-01) for Seamus O Mahony
- Seamus Cronin for Mikey O Connor
- David Walsh for Seamus Fox