Ballydesmond earn draw with Glenville
Ballydesmond 0-10 Glenville 0-10
A FAIR result saw Ballydesmond and Glenville finish deadlocked at the end of the hour to a closely contested County Intermediate Football Championship Round 3 in Mallow on Saturday.
From a contest of missed chances, relief emerged the over riding emotion in both camps at the full time whistle where an injury time point from Glenville’s Ben Halbert squared up the contest.
Far from an epic tussle yet a hardened determination surfaced about both sides that was impossible to ignore with the closeness of the scores keeping the fare entertaining until the last whistle.
Interestingly given the closeness of the exchanges, the teams were deadlocked on just two occasions over the hour with Glenville never able to get their noses ahead. However, at the full-time whistle, they were few dissenting voices as to the stalemate situation.
A breeze assisted Ballydesmond were tuned in from the start, imposing themselvcs from the outset, points recorded by Donncha O’Connor and Brendan Fleming. Glenville broke their duck courtesy of a Halbert point, that score cancelled out by a pointed free by O’Connor.
From the keen exchanges, Ballydesmond shaded certain areas through the effective play of Shaun Murphy, John O’Keeffe, Jerry Healy, Niall O’Sullivan and O’Connor up front was central to much of the Duhallow side’s most prominent play.
As a nip and tuck affair continued, swapped points by Halbert and O’Connor allowed Ballydesmond lead 0-4 to 0-2 mid way through the opening half. At times, the shooting of both sides left a lot to be desired at either end, Ballydesmond ‘keeper Fergal O’Sullivan denied the Glenville attack before Dylan O’Donovan added a point.
Though Ballydesmond replied on a Niall Fleming flag, Glenville turned a spell of dominance into scores on points to Dylan McCarthy and Paudie Cahill helped gather parity. With the sides evenly matched in every facet of play, Ballydesmond regained the lead O’Connor obliged from a pointed free to land a narrow 0-6 to 0-5 advantage at the break.
On the restart, Glenville came ever so close to a goal, Halbert’s effort brought the best out of O’Sullivan between the Ballydesmond posts. Scoring wise, an exchange of pointed frees by O’Connor and Dylan O’Donovan maintained the status quo.
For a spell, Ballydesmond enjoyed more urgency, county player showed his class on weighing in with an additional brace to bring his tally to 0-7. Still Glenville weren’t far off on offering commendable battling qualities, positional changes brought about a significant improvement.
Indeed, the positive efforts of Kevin O’Neill, Denis Hegarty, Paddy O’Regan in addition to substitutes Dan Dennehy and Kieran Coakley contributed to Glenville’s cause. Two well struck points from Dennehy narrowed the deficit 0-9 to 0-8 at the three quarter stage.
With chances going abegging at either end, Ballydesmond passed up on a sweeping move saw Denis Ring and Donncha O’Connor combine to place Niall Fleming in the danger zone who elected to find Daire Moynihan only for the ball to spill and away from the danger area.
Though Fleming extended Ballydesmond’s position with a point, Glenville refused to be ruffled, again Ballydesmond thankful to net-minder O’Sullivan on finger-tipping Dennehy’s effort over the crossbar. With the game in the melting pot, Ballydesmond attempted to hold onto their slender grip by retaining the ball.
Still Glenville held their concentration levels and pressed forward for an all important break to allow Halbert display his radar to confidently despatch the ball between the uprights to ensure a fair division of the spoils.
Plenty of homework to ponder on both sides yet by virtue of the closeness in the exchanges, both Ballydesmond and Glenville will enter the replay in optimistic mood on a return to Mallow on Saturday, August 26.
BALLYDESMOND: F O’Sullivan; T Howard, S Murphy, Denis Kelly; N O’Leary, J O’Keeffe, S Ring; G Healy, N O’Sullivan; Donncha O’Connor 0-7(0-4f), B Fleming 0-1, Donal O’Connor; D Moynihan, N Fleming 0-2, S Kelly Subs: S O’Connor for N O’Leary (17), N O’Connor for O’Keeffe (50), S Cronin for Donal O’Connor (50), Donal Kelly for Ring (57)
GLENVILL: D Foley; D O’Farrell, K O’Neill, S Field; D Hegarty, P O’Regan, A Spriggs; E Delahunt, W Connolly; S O’Callaghan, E O’Reilly, D McCarthy 0-1; B Halbert 0-3, P Cahill 0-1, D O’Donovan 0-2 (0-1f) Subs:
K Coakley for O’Reilly (ht), D Dennehy 0-3 for Cahill (ht), O’Reilly for Connolly (50)
REFEREE: D Farrell (Mitchelstown)