Mayo SFC final: Ballina Stephenites 1-12 Knockmore 0-8
A 38th Mayo Senior Football Championship title came a lot easier than anticipated for Ballina Stephenites who swept aside the challenge of next-door neighbours Knockmore in Castlebar.
The defending champions, who won last year’s final by scoring only six points, had matched that tally inside 13 minutes of the throw-in, with an exquisite goal on the counterattack by Evan Regan helping to send them into a 1-3 to 0-1 lead.
Knockmore, who failed in an 11th-hour appeal to have midfielder Pearse Ruttledge’s semi-final red card rescinded, could never get to the pitch of the game and over the course of the hour scored just three points from play.
Regan and Frank Irwin each added a pair of first-half frees for Stephenites who led 1-6 to 0-3 at the turnaround.
Ballina were welcoming current and former Mayo players Padraig O’Hora and Mikey Murray back from injury. The latter picked off a couple of second-half points while O’Hora ended the game as man-of-the-match.
Knockmore went 20 minutes either side of half-time without a score and when Caolan Hopkins finally ended that barren spell in the 40th minute, his point turned out to be their only one from play after the restart, with the remainder of their scores coming from the boot of free-taker Aiden Orme, whose black card in stoppage time only rubbed salt in Knockmore’s wounds.
Scorers – Ballina: Evan Regan 1-2 (0-2f), Frank Irwin 0-3f, Conor McStay and Mikey Murray 0-2 each, Sam Callinan, Sean Regan and Niall Feeney 0-1 each. Knockmore: Aidan Orme 0-4 (3f), Caolan Hopkins 0-3 (2f), Keith Ruttledge 0-1.
BALLINA STEPHENITES: David Clarke; Liam Golden, Padraig O’Hora, David Tighe; Sean Regan, Sam Callinan, Luke Jordan; Mikey Murray, Frank Irwin; Luke Doherty, Conor McStay, Niall Feeney; Evan Regan, Luke Feeney, Brendan Collins.
Subs: Ciaran Boland (for S Regan HT), Ciaran Treacy (for O’Hora, 48-61 mins), Dylan Thornton and Ciaran Sweeney (for Doherty and L Feeney, 58), Stephen Mullins (for Golden, 60), Treacy (for N Feeney, 60+3).
KNOCKMORE: Colm Reape; David McHale, Kieran King, Adam Battle; Nathan Armstrong, Conor Flynn, Sean Holmes; Connell Dempsey, Kevin McLoughlin; Oliver Armstrong, Darren McHale, Keith Ruttledge; Liam Durcan, Aiden Orme, Caolan Hopkins.
Subs: Adam Naughton and Billy Ruane (for Dempsey and Flynn, 39 mins), Charlie Bourke (for Ruttledge, 48), Peter Naughton (for Durcan, 53), Darragh Staunton (for Armstrong, 57).
Referee: Jerome Henry (Castlebar Mitchels).
