*Ballyea’s Niall Deasy. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
BALLYEA ‘always knew it was going to go down to the wire’ in the Group of Death.
With one win and one loss to their name, Ballyea need to get a result in the final round against Éire Óg who have been arguably the most impressive team in the championship to date
Cusack Park is set to host the meeting of Town and Country this Saturday evening at 17:30. A win or draw will do Éire Óg so far as topping the group is concerned and they can still secure qualification for the quarter-finals even if they are defeated, so long as it is not by six points or more.
A never-say-die Ballyea must secure that six point win to keep their season alive. Round two saw them issue a response to a very uncharacteristic first round loss to Clonlara. “Since the Clonlara defeat, we actually lost Brandon O’Connell who went back to Australia, a situation we had known for some time. He was one of the few shining lights from the Clonlara game and then Aaron Griffin pulled his hamstring for Lissycasey so we were down two big players but we knew from the last two weeks that there would be a reaction,” manager Barry Cullinane said.
He continued, “The Clonlara performance was obviously disappointing, on and off the field. As manager the buck stops with me but everyone was really really disappointed and to be honest the intervening two weeks since had been brilliant and you could see the older brigade putting their shoulders to the wheel and driving everything on while some of the younger ones took on a bit of leadership from that as well.
“We know that this performance wasn’t perfect either and it probably wasn’t the greatest game in the world but this is a new set-up and there has to be a bit of a bedding in period so we kind of sensed that it would take a little time to build so let’s hope we do get more matches to build it further now. But look it’s a really tough group and we always knew that it would go right down to the wire so we’ve Éire Óg to come in another huge test and you’re just hoping that coming down the final stretch that you’re still in with a shot”.
Defeated in both of their outings, Clooney/Quin could throw the championship wide open if they overcome champions Clonlara in O’Garney Park, Sixmilebridge at 17:30. “The margins are so tight but look we had chances to see out the game but we didn’t do that. Our game management was quite poor so that’s the most disappointing part about it because we did create the chances but we just didn’t take them,” manager Fergal Lynch said following their two point loss to Ballyea.
“We opted to go against the breeze on the premise that we’d work really hard and put ourselves on the front foot going in at half-time. We were very happy going in at half-time considering the way we had played and we started the second half well. To be honest we just weren’t clinical enough I felt and in fairness when Ballyea’s bench came in, they got the scores at vital times to kick them on.
“We’re looking at a situation within our team that we’ve been very unlucky with injuries to some of our county boys. John Cahill and Peter [Duggan] are carrying very serious ankle injuries and are just going from day to day. John Conneally is out through injury while Jack O’Neill almost lost his finger with a chainsaw so even with that, we’ve closed the gap on Ballyea. A few years ago they gave us a good hiding in the Park albeit that they’re missing a few guys them-selves now too. So we have closed the gap, it’s just disappointing that we didn’t come out on the right side of it,” he concluded.
