For Baltinglass
picked off by Heaslip and his pass to O’Brien resulted in a good block from the Avondale goalkeeper but the rebound fell into Heaslip’s path to fire home his first of the game.
Baltinglass were unlucky not to have netted an unheard of twelve goals, with Sean O’Brien seeing his effort rebound of the crossbar and upright before John McGrath settled for a point but O’Brien would not have long to wait for his second goal.
A neat one-two with Kevin Murphy allowed O’Brien into the aforementioned space and he duly obliged by slotting the ball through the keepers legs into the net leaving a 5-6 to 0-3 lead at half time in Baltinglass’ favour.
The Slaneysiders had the luxury of ringing the changes at half time, and the results of the labour continued the same. Saoirse Kearnon almost goaled for Avondale but was thwarted by Jackson before points from Heaslip and McGrath set the tone for the half again.
A quick free from Heaslip into Adam Fleming resulted in Baltinglass’ sixth goal on ten minutes and they had their seventh with the move of the match from the kick out. A breaking ball to Kevin Murphy was worked through the hands to McHugh who in turn played in McGrath who fired a rocket into the Avondale goal.
Sean O’Brien completed his hat-trick after Mikey English flicked the ball into his path before Lee Furlong added one for himself after Kevin Murphy provided him with the ball. Baltinglass were walking through the Avondale defence from the off here, neat 1, 2’s and interplay allowing them one on one opportunities that will always favour a forward over a goalkeeper and it became something of a training game for the home side with each player almost trying to pass to someone who hadn’t scored to get their name on the score sheet. Brian Lord and Patrick Burke both got majors beside their names by the end of the games conclusion and a lovely score from McGrath to uh’s and ah’s from a very muted and stunned stand closed out the game.
A game which neither will take anything from in the bigger picture.
Baltinglass: Mark Jackson, Thomas Murphy, John Murray, Stephen Heaslip, Patrick Burke (1-0), Kevin Murphy, Aaron Barrett, John McGrath (1-4), Jason Kennedy, Conor Keogh (0-1), Adam McHugh (1-1), Tom Burke, Peter Dowling (2-0), Sean O’Brien (3-2), Chris Heaslip (1-3) Subs: Mikey English, Declan Jones, Brian Lord (1-0), Lee Furlong (1-0) Michael Dowling and David Gethings.
Avondale panel: Eamon Kearns, Cathal Doyle, Ian Heffernan, Eugene Dunne, Seamus McGraynor, Donal McGraynor, Conor Byrne, Saoirse Kearnon, Liam Kinsella, Patrick Kinsella, Simon Cullen, Shane Beavor, Darren Beavor, Anthony Byrne, Ronan Doyle and Cormac Doyle.