County Junior Football Championship win for Ahane
On Thursday night last, our Junior Football team played their Round 4 County Championship match versus Ballybricken in Caherconlish. As both teams were yet to record a victory in this year’s championship, this meeting was set up to be a battle royale between two evenly matched teams looking to avoid the relegation playoffs and retain an outside chance of a quarter final spot.
Facing into the breeze in the first half, Ahane played with dogged determination to make as much of the chances that fell their way as possible to keep the tie alive into the second period. With a resolute defence and some outstanding work in midfield from Mike Hayes, an excellent thirty minutes saw the teams swop sides with Ballybricken leading by 5 points to 3. Whatever words John Keane shared at half-time worked splendidly as within a couple of minutes of the restart, some outstanding play by Marty McPhail and Ger Frawley released Killian Carroll inside who finished calmly to the net for Ahane to take a lead they would never relinquish. Our team continued to push on at this stage and tagged on some great scores from further out to build a cushion that would be vital come the full-time whistle.
With Ahane leading by 4 points half-way through the period, Ballybricken began to gain control of the middle third sensing that their season could depend upon this result. Again, the defence stood firm as wave after wave came running at them, and but for some missed opportunities as the other end, this game may have had a calmer resolution. However, Ballybricken did manage to score an equalising point in injury time, but through sheer will and outstanding interplay, a final chance was created for Ahane which Mike Mullally took with aplomb, easing it high and through from 35 metres out off his left foot.
With the referee calling a halt on the resulting kickout, the spoils were claimed by a jubilant Ahane team who now look forward to their final group match versus Ballybrown in mid-September.
Team – D. Lillis, J. Bennett, D. Kinane, D. Kennedy, J. McDermott, T. Cross, I. Mooney, M. Hayes, G. Frawley, M. McPhail, T. O’Sullivan, A. Minehan, K. Carroll, M. Mullally, D. Feerick, Stephen Ryan, J. Kennedy, Steve Ryan, K. Keenan, J. Keane.
