Monasterevan back on track with Ballymore win

The Auld Shebeen Bar IFC, Group D

Monasterevan 1-10

Ballymore Eustace 0-10

Monasterevan bounced back from their preliminary round defeat to Round Towers and produced an outstanding second half comeback, to overcome the challenge of Ballymore Eustace in The Auld Shebeen Athy IFC at Kilcullen GAA Headquarters last Friday night.

Although Monasterevan played some good football throughout, from a Ballymore point of view, they will really see this as a missed opportunity to get their championship campaign back on track.

After Monasterevan raced into an early two point lead, Ballymore hit back with three in a row and went on to hold the lead for the next 45 minutes.

Callum Barrett, Caolan Halpin and the two Murphys, Niall and Simon, were causing all sorts of problems for the opposition defence and knocked over some superb points.

Up the other end of the pitch, the team in blue were staying within touching distance, thanks to scores from Padraig Nash and Ryan Bannon in particular.

Ballymore Eustace held a 0-7 to 0-4 lead at the break and were full value for their three point advantage.

When midfielder Sean Kavanagh was shown a second yellow card five minutes after the restart, the uphill task for Monasterevan appeared to get even steeper - but, as this club has shown down through the years, they can never be written off.

With 40 minutes on the clock, Ballymore were leading by 4 points and with the extra man, looked to be in the driving seat. That was before Monasterevan took the wheel.

First, Ryan Bannon, Evan Nash and Charlie Doyle all tagged on points, before Doyle got the game's only goal inside the final ten minutes, to put Monasterevan back in front and they would stay there for the remainder of the tie.

Niall Murphy, Paul Maloney and Padraig Nash all traded points before the full time whistle, while Callum McClintock was sent off for Ballymore just before the end, to ensure the sides would both finish with 14 men, but Monasterevan would finish the right side of the result on the scoreboard.

MONASTEREVAN: Adam Forde; Keelan Meredith, Eoin Stapleton, Cormac Stapleton; Cian Harrison, Eric Morrissey 0-1, Evan Nash 0-1; Sean Kavanagh, Paul Maloney 0-1; Padraig Nash 0-4 4f, Michael Donoghue, Conor Lonergan; Charlie Doyle 1-1 1f, Ryan Bannon 0-2, Adam Kavanagh. SUB: Gary Kelly for Doyle 56.

BALLYMORE EUSTACE: Tommy Archibald; Kevin Kelleher, Des Horan, Joe Broderick; Michael Stewart-Byrne, Ben Noone 0-1, Callum McClintock; Caolan Halpin 0-2, Mark Barrett; Sean Broderick, Gareth Clarke, Eoin Clarke; Callum Barrett 0-2, Niall Murphy 0-4 3f, Simon Murphy 0-1. SUBS: Enda Stewart-Byrne for Horan 40, Daniel Conway for Michael Stewart-Byrne 45, Paddy Murphy for Noone 55.

REFEREE: Fergus Devereux.