Ballyroan very impressive against 14 men Ballyfin

Coming into the weekend, 99 percent would agree that this looked like the game of the weekend. On one side you had Ballyroan who had played lovely football throughout and nearly pulled off a shock win over Joesphs. On the other you had Ballyfin whos markesman Sean Moore put in a Michael Jordan like performance last time out. A place in the quarters awaited one of these sides.

Ballyroan 4-13 

Ballyfin 1-13 

Sean Moore picked up where he left off the last day by slotting the first 2 fress to give Ballyfin an early lead. 

Ballyroan hit back though with points from whelan, mcevoy and Padraigh Mcamahon, 

Mcmahon himself was proving to be a handful and he got the games opening goal to put Ballyroan 5 points up after only 8 minutes 

Ballyroan kicked on with three more points before a glorious chance fell to ballyfins target man Seam moore, who forced a great save out of Paudi Mcdonald 

Padraig Mcmahons speed was causing all sorts of problems for the Ballyfin defence as he chipped in with 3 more pounts on the bounce 

In the opening 25 minutes Ballyfin made three subsitututes and panic stations were begining to set in for them as they trailed 9 points 

Just on the cusp of halftime ballyfin went down to 14 men after some handbags resulted in sub George Lanham being shown the line, it appeared from the press box that he swung a boot at Mcmahon who was on the ground at the time.

Ballyroan were much the stronger team in the first half, large parts of that has to be accredited to their defence who held Ballyfin to 5 points. Their defensive structure acted like well a placed piece in Tetris that fell into place whenever Ballyfin had possession.

The lack of movement in the ballyfin forward line didnt help matters for them though, they seemed at half time overreliant on Sean Moores accuracy as he had chipped in with 4 of their 5 points 

Ht score Ballyroan 1-10 Ballyfin 0-5

After a Sean Moore free rickishayed of the post, the ball was picked up by his brother James Moore. James then opened the scoring in the second half to pull one back for Ballyfin. 

In the early stages of the first half, Ballyroan looked a little lethargic and made a few wrong decisions. That was until Diarmuid Whelan stepped up and put it in back of the bally fin net. In the very next play Martin Scully won a penatly and Brian Whelan would duly to convert to give Ballyroan a 12 point lead. With 20 minutes to go, the game was pretty much beyond Ballyfin.

With 10 minutes to go the ref awarded a penalty to Ballyfin in which that man again Sean Moore converted. But in the very next they were caught on the hop. Some good link up play by Diarmuid Whelan allowed sub Lawson Obular to practically walk the ball into the net to give Ballyroan their 4th goal of the game. 

Davin Mcevoy and Sean Moore would trade points in the closing stages 

Ballyroan managed the closing stages very well but really the damage was done a long way out. On reflection 14 men Ballyfin really couldnt handle the ballyroan fire power. Ballyfins forwards were very relliant on Sean Moore, who contributed 1-10 of their 1-13. For Ballyroan it was a seriously impressive performance throughout the field and no team will be looking forward to playing them in the quarter finals. 

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*See Tuesday's Leinster Express for full coverage

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