Boyle bends semi-final to his will
NORTH KERRY SFC SEMI-FINAL
Ballyduff 3-10 Listowel Emmets 2-12
WHEN the chips are down, that’s when Ballyduff are at their most dangerous.
It wasn’t looking good for the green and white. No question about it. In the ten minutes leading up to half-time Listowel Emmets had assumed control over the game. Playing great stuff, the townies had opened out a four point lead at the break – 1-8 to 0-7.
Not in anyway insurmountable, but with the breeze to come in the second half – and with Noel Kennelly and Conor Cox positioned on the edge of the square – it was certainly looking good for Listowel Emmets.
Inside the opening two minutes of the second half that strong position was fortified further still. A point from Jack McGuire pretty much straight from the throw in seemed to signal their intent.
A goal sixty seconds later from the hugely impressive Bryan Sweeney – assist Cox – pushed the Emmets eight points clear. At that stage most observers couldn’t FIXTURES have imagined a way back Ballyduff.
More fool us. Never ever write off Ballyduff. Where there’s a will there’s a way and if Ballyduff are anything they’re willing. Character and heart, they’ve got them by the bucket-load.
Quality too of course. For as much as it’s tempting to put this brilliant victory down to bottle and all that, there was more to it than just that. Sure they’re street-fighters and they – and Mikey Boyle in particular – wrestled control of this game back from Listowel, but there were moments of magic too along the way.
Like the way for their first goal – which came just a couple of minutes after Sweeney’s – Barry O’Grady was thinking ahead and thinking faster than everybody else to pick out Pádraig Boyle who slammed to the back of Keith Hughes’ net.
It was just the start of a remarkable five minute spell for the underdogs. They turned the tide at midfield in a major way, pinning Listowel back inside their own forty five. Ballyduff were first to every ball, ravenous in the turnover, rocking Listowel back on their heels in a major way.
When a minute after Pádraig Boyle’s goal, Ballyduff won another close in free Listowel seemed more alive to the danger initially. Mikey Boyle picked up the ball to
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2 North Kerry League Division 2 Final
Moyvane v Ballyduff, Brosna 2pm
Junior Brendan Boyle Memorial Cup Semi Final
Duagh B v BallylongfordB,Coolard 2.30pm
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3 North Kerry SFC Semi-final replay
Ballydonoghue v Brosna, Ballylongford 2pm
Minor Championship Division 1 Final St Senans VListowel Emmets,Finuge 12.30pm
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10 North Kerry SFC Final
Ballydonoghue or Brosna v Ballyduff, Listowel 2.30pm
RESULTS
Novice Cup Semi Finals
Listowel Emmet’s C 2-9 Knockanure 1-7
U21 Championship Semi Final
Tarbert/Moyvane 0-3 Finuge 3-7 for take the free and most of us had the point already added to Ballyduff’s total and, maybe, Listowel did too.
Boyle, however, had other ideas. His shot for goal caught everybody flat-footed including the Emmets’ shot-stopper. All of a sudden Listowel’s grasp on proceedings looked decidedly less firm. Three minutes after Boyle’s goal the game was completely up-ended after a Jack Goulding goal. That eight point Emmets lead was now a one point deficit. To give the Listowel men their dues they recovered their composure after this – a pointed free from Cox helped – but even as they fought their way back into the lead (thanks to Noel Kennelly on forty five minutes), they never quite recovered the form they displayed in the first half.
Ballyduff had started the game well enough, but as the first half wore on Emmets grew more and more confident. They were the ones playing the clever little one twos, they were the ones spraying ball around nicely, they were the ones striking at pace. They were the ones who secured the first goal of the game.
That the Emmets goal – on sixteen minutes by Shane Quinn – came mere minutes after Jack Goulding cracked a shot at goal off the woodwork only added to its significance. A six-point swing in the space of sixty seconds looked to set them up for victory.
Ballyduff’s warrior spirit in the second half meant it played out very differently. Even with Emmets regaining some of their composure, Ballyduff continued to hold the whip hand. Points from Mikey Boyle and Barry O’Grady (both frees) fired them back in front. They could even have had a fourth goal when O’Grady sent Pádraig Boyle through.
Listowel never gave up and by the sixtieth minute – following a Noel Kennelly point, assist Shane Quinn – the game was level once more. Ballyduff, however, kept their heads. Jack McGuire fouled O’Grady in front of the sticks and Boyle fired it over confidently against the breeze.
Listowel did get one last chance to salvage a replay alas Conor Cox’s effort from the placed ball – about fifty five metres out – drifted wide (remember too that Cox had been off injured for a spell).
The defeat is a bitter pill for the Emmets to swallow, but the better team probably did win and they’re a team neither Brosna or Ballydonoghue will much fancy playing in the final.
BALLYDUFF: Sean Browne, Thomas Slattery, Sean Costello, Cathal Kearney, Johnny Regan, Paul O’Carroll, Barry O’Grady (0-2, 1f), Paud Costello, Jack O’Sullivan, Pádraig Boyle (1-0), Jack Goulding (1-2), Anthony O’Carroll, John Paul Leahy, Mikey Boyle (1-6, 5f), David Goulding Subs: Liam Boyle for JP Leahy, 47
LISTOWEL EMMETS: Keith Hughes, Shane Quinn (1-0), Darragh Broderick, Niall Collins, Ger McCarthy, Brendan Guiney, Ciaran Pierse, Cathal Keane, Bryan Sweeney (1-1), Darragh Leahy, Cormac Mulvhill (0-2), David Keane (0-1), Sam Tarrant (0-1), Noel Kennelly (0-2), Conor Cox (0-4, 2f) Subs: Jack McGuire (0-1) for C Keane, 22, Maurice Whelan for D Broderick, 40, David Sheehy for C Cox, 42, C Cox for S Tarrant, 52, Callum Stack for D Leahy, 60
REFEREE: Seamus Mulvhill (St Senans)