Entertaining draw in Division 3 encounter.
March 03, 2025
Killavullen played out an entertaining draw in Ballyhooley yesterday afternoon, on a pitch that was in fantastic condition, and brilliantly presented with all lines, and arc on the field. This was the first game for both teams in the Avondhu Division 3 football league, a league for 13 a side teams.
Killavullen lost one of their starting thirteen players very early in the game, when Kian Lane picked up an injury, and he was replaced by Sean Palmer
Mikey O Connor opened the scoring with a point, which was followed up quickly by Seamus O Mahony and Sean Palmer adding to our tally. Ballyhooly replied with a free but then Seamus added two more scores for us. Ballyhooly added a second point, again from a free, before they were right back in the game, when they scored a free from outside the arc to register two points.
Padraig Cronin, and Niall Feaheny scored nice points in reply, and then Padraig added a real beauty of a team point, that started with an intelligent break out of defense, initiated by Niall Carroll and Thomas Fennell. Seamus added another point and the Ballyhooly custodian pulled off a great save from a fine goal bound effort from Colm Hayes. Mikey O Connor added the final point of the half to leave the score at the interval 0-10 to 0-04.
Killavullen make a raft of changes, seven in total as they concentrated on using their bench and the intensity dipped as result. Ian O Mahony scored a good point for us, before Ballyhooly got a point back with another free. Our hosts were right back in the game when they were awarded a penalty that they converted, and in a separate incident, we lost a player for 10 minutes, with a black card. The game was really in the melting pot when Ballyhooly scored a cracking goal, with a pile driver of a shot from distance. Colm Hayes scored a lovely point for us but Ballyhooley replied with a point from open play, and then a free to have the game at the same score to each side, 0-13 to 2-07.
In the closing couple of minutes, Niall Carroll made a great run up the field and scored a lovely point, but Ballyhooly replied with a point of their own. Killavullen scuppered a great chance to win the game when we messed up an over load situation right the death and saw the ball agonizingly trickle against the post, and rebounded out to the grateful arms of the goal keeper. In what was a very first run out for the year, there was too many shots drop into the hands of the goal keeper and our opponents got 1-06 from frees. Fix those two small things, and this team will undoubtedly improve.
The team was;
- Darragh O Connor
- Tomas Fennell
- Cian O Connor
- Kian Lane
- Niall Feaheny
- Niall Carroll (0-01)
- Mikey O Connor (0-02)
- Ronan Barry
- Owen Magner
- Seamus O Mahony (0-04)
- Padraig Cronin (0-02)
- Colm Hayes (0-01)
- Dominic Bolster
The utilized substitutes were;
- Sean Palmer (0-01)
- Evan Sheahan
- Barry Cotter
- Sean Bartley
- Colm O Mahony
- Jack Martin
- Ian O Mahony (0-02)
- David Walsh