Ballydonoghue made to dig deep by dogged Knocknagoshel

NORTH KERRY SFC ROUND 1

Knocknagoshel 0-9 Ballydonoghue 0-11

THIS one was always likely to be a tricky enough assignment for Ballydonoghue on their quest to reclaim the O’Donoghue Cup for the third time in four years.

Knocknagoshel have been a team on the up all year long and on their home patch are a difficult proposition for any team. The green and gold would have fancied their chances of creating an upset here from a long way out and the longer the game went on the more realistic a proposition that became.

In the end though Ballydonoghue had that little bit more about them in front of the sticks and edged home by two points, deservedly so, but it wouldn’t have taken altogether that much for the game to have gone the other way. That’s an enormous credit to the work being done in Knocknagoshel who won promotion to Division 4 this year.

Ballydonoghue were first on the board with a point from Stephen Foley in the first minute. A short time later Knocknagoshel free taker Edmond Walsh equalised from an awarded free. The deadlock was broken with a fasted moved ball up the pitch for Knocknagoshel’s wing-back John O’Keeffe to round back the years splitting the post to a cheer from the stand, game on.

Ballydonoghue corner-forward Jack Foley converted a free in the 10th minute to bring the teams level again.

A minute later Foley split the posts to put Ballydonoghue ahead by the narrowest of margins. Knocknagoshel corner’forward David O’Donoghue equalised for the second time in the 15th minute.

With nothing between these teams, it was going to take something special, but what cost Knocknagoshel was a bit of indiscipline for the last quarter of the half were from the 17th minute until the 33rd Ballydonoghue’s four points all came from frees taken by Paul Kennelly and Jack Foley.

Knocknagoshel’s last score of the half came in the 30th minute from Edmond Walsh to bring the half-time score to Ballydonoghue 0-7 Knocknagoshel 0-4. A not insignificant margin and one that went along expected lines.

Knock though weren’t just turning out to make up the numbers. They meant business and right from the start of the second half took the game by the scruff of the neck and sensed that maybe there was a surprise on the cards.

For the first 10 opening minutes Knocknagoshel owned the ball, but rushed their scoring chances and made the wrong decisions resulting in wasted opportunities. Edmond Walsh, however, did convert two awarded frees to close the gap to just a single point, before Ballydonoghue responded with a well kicked point from Paul Kennelly in the 13th minute.

In quick reply the gap was closed again to a single point in the 15th minute when wing-forward Dan Roache split the posts, but in the 18th minute Roache saw yellow a second time and left the pitch to the disappointment of the Knocknagoshel supporters.

Everyone felt that it was now going to be an uphill struggle for Knocknagoshel in what was a very tight game, but inspiration came from centre-back Michael Walsh, who a minute later kicked a beauty of a point to level the sides with 10 minutes left on the clock.

Ballydonoghue seemed to sense that now it was time to push on, came in waves of attack to put pressure on Knocknagoshel and it was their ever reliable Paul Kennelly who pointed in the 22nd minute to bring his side up a point, but with a combination play by the Walsh brothers finished by Edmond Walsh to level matters again.

Ballydonoghue seemed to struggle with their extra man and it seemed at times that both teams had a full compliment of players on the pitch, but with the clock now down to three minutes of normal time it was centre-back for Ballydonoghue, Michéal Foley, who put his side up a point, the clock had turned red and a rushed shoot at the uprights by the ever industrious Michael Walsh Knocknagoshel went wide.

The kick-out was moved fast with the clock now a minute into extra time and corner-forward Jack Foley secured the game for Ballydonoghue to come away with a win. They now face Tarbert in the quarter-final. for

KNOCKNAGOSHEL: Mike Casey,Darragh O’Connell, John Brosnan, Gary Downey, John O’Keeffe, Michael Walsh, Conor Sheehan (captain), Shane O’Connell, Kieran Downey, Dan Roche, Edmond Walsh, Denis Roche, Niall Barrett, John Walsh, David O’Donoghue

BALLYDONOGHUE: Darragh O’Shea, Liam Guiney, Jason Foley, John Enright (Capt.) Brendán O’Neill, Michéal Foley, Danny Power, Martin O’Mahony, Brian O Seanacháin, Daragh Sheehy, Stephen Foley, Brian Mason, Jack Foley, Kevin O’Donnell, Paul Kennelly, subs Jim Cremin for Darragh Sheehy, Billy Foley for John Enright, Declan Behan for Stephen Foley.

REFEREE: Colman Flaherty (Listowel Emmets)