Ballylanders see off Ballysteen in Limerick senior football relegation play-off:
By John Redington Limerick Leader Sport
“ABSOLUTE relief. Lads stepping up to play through their injuries. No way were we going to go down after 25 years at senior,” was the delighted reaction of manager Eddie English after Ballylanders’ nail-biting 2-10 to 0-13 Irish Wire Products Limerick senior football relegation play-off win over Ballysteen at a wet and windy, Ballyagran on Sunday afternoon.
Like every demotion derby, form went straight out the window, not just in the record of the season that led up to it, but right through the game itself as well.
Ballylanders raced into an early lead of eight points despite playing into the gale, saw themselves pulled back to parity at the break and then fall behind on the restart before an explosive last quarter delivered the scores that saw them through to salvation.
In the end, it boiled down to whichever side could maintain their intensity the longest and, perhaps buoyed up by their hurling arm Glenroe’s fierce defence of their premier intermediate status three nights previously, Ballylanders had that edge in self-belief to squeeze themselves over the line.
But it sure was a nerve-wracking 70 minutes, counting the stoppages, before the majority of the supporters in the noisy, full-throated crowd could relax as emotions on both sides teetered between elation and despair.
Ballysteen’s biggest regret coming off the field was not stretching their lead further as they continued their dominance over the interval and a score or two extra in the third quarter against opponents being drawn into a succession of fouls might have given them enough space to close off any Ballylanders attempts to recover.
However, the biggest gap Ballysteen could manage was two points and it just wasn’t enough once their opponents start making the most of the wind.
The game started at contrasting paces as wind-assisted Ballysteen tried to counter Ballylanders’ patient use of possession to launch the quick break but that changed with Steve Fox sending over a ’45’ after Brian Neville’s save had denied Tom O’Dwyer a goal.
However, he had better luck with his next chance as he collected off Danny Frewen’s turnover of the kick-out to slot into the corner of the net and, after Frewen sent the next kick-out over the crossbar, Ballylanders looked to have travelled most of the way to victory when Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s long delivery found Shane O’Donoghue who raced in past the challenges from the left before blasting a screamer of a shot into the top corner of Neville’s goal.
Ballysteen’s attempts to respond were going nowhere against their opponents’ defensive shape until a foul allowed allowed David O’Shaughnessy to send over their opening free. With the pressure now on the Ballylanders’ kickout into the gale, James O’Sullivan’s mastery under the dropping ball allowed them to close the first half with 12 minutes of sustained pressure as points from Joey Rush and Shane Hallinan followed.
Danny Neville went on the rampage to grab another three scores before O’Shaughnessy’s pointed free and an O’Sullivan score levelled the game at 0-8 to 2-2 at the half-time break.
The Estuary club kept up the pressure after the restart and took the lead when skipper Darragh Ranahan pointed when action resumed.
Drawing a succession of fouls from the opposing defence, Rushe pointed one to double Ballysteen’s advantage but, after missing a number of chances as shots dropped short, they were pegged back by Jason Leigh’s huge, gale-assisted point and, now able to pressure the kickout, Ballyanders levelled as Shane O’Donoghue pointed at the end of a solo up half of the field.
Ballylanders then went ahead when Frewen sent the resulting kickout back over the black spot.
However, come the three-quarter mark, fortunes changed again as the Deelsiders drew frees from running at their opponents, with Rushe equalising off one and O’Shaughnessy regaining the advantage off the next.
By this stage, legs were tiring, substitutes were piling on, turnovers were conceded and the chaos in the middle third allowed Ballylanders to regain the initiative as O’Donoghue and Liam Dennehy pointed off fast breaks to turn the lead around again.
Coming up to the end of regulation time, veteran Kieran O’Callaghan was introduced to send over a free and a monster score from all of 60 metres for Ballylanders to leave a goal between the sides two minutes into added time.
Ballysteen tried to respond. Another five minutes of furious pressure saw goal attempts by Neville and O’Shaughnessy scrambled off the line and Pádraig Murphy pulling a point back. However, despite their numerical advantage after Pa Holian picked up a black card, they just couldn’t force another opening before Cian Browne pointed magnificently from way out on the left sideline to spark the Ballylanders celebrations.
SCORERS: BALLYLANDERS: Shane O’Donoghue 1-2, Tom O’Dwyer 1-0, Danny Frewen, Kieran O’Callaghan (1 free) 0-2 each, Steve Fox (’65’), Jason Leigh, Darren Frewen, Cian Browne 0-1 each; BALLYSTEEN: David O’Shaughnessy (3 frees), Danny Neville, Joey Rush 0-2 (2 frees) 0-3 each, Shane Hallinan, James O’Sullivan, Darragh Ranahan, Pádraig Murphy 0-1 each.
BALLYLANDERS: Declan O’Connor; Donal Kelly, Pa Holian, Brian O’Connell; Jason Leigh, Pa Shanahan, Tom O’Dwyer; Oisín Browne, Liam Dennehy; Robbie Downey, Jimmy Barry Murphy, Shaun Moloney; Steve Fox, Danny Frewen, Shane O’Donoghue. SUBS: Mark O’Connell for Shaun Moloney (40 minutes), Cillian O’Brien for Liam Dennehy (41 minutes), Darren Frewen for Steve Fox (48 minutes), Kieran O’Callaghan for Tom O’Dwyer (53 minutes), Cian Browne for Danny Frewen (64 minutes).
BALLYSTEEN: Brian Neville; Bill Casey, Pakie Moran, Eddie Murphy; Alan McGrath, Shane Gallagher, Pádraig McMahon; James O’Sullivan, Sam Colgan; Danny Neville, Darragh Ranahan, Paul O’Shaughnessy; Joey Rushe, Shane Halligan, David O’Shaughnessy. SUBS: Pádraig Murphy for Shane Hallinan (41 minutes), Mike Boyce for James O’Sullivan (47 minutes).
REFEREE: Donnacha O’Callaghan (Castlemahon).