O’Connor brothers on target as Ballintubber triumph
THE O’Connor brothers stole the show as Ballintubber reclaimed the Mayo SFC title against neighbours Breaffy at MacHale Park last night.
Mayo star Cillian O’Connor shot seven points and delivered a man-of-the-match display while brother Diarmuid landed the winning score in the 59th minute.
It was Ballintubber’s first Moclair Cup triumph in four years while Breaffy have now lost all three county senior finals they have appeared in with defeats in 2013 and 2015.
Ballintubber were 0-6 to 1-2 up at the break despite a bad start.
Breaffy’s Peter Dravins tucked away a penalty inside three minutes after Aidan O’Shea was fouled but they couldn’t build on that early boost.
Four frees from the unerring Cillian O’Connor helped last term’s beaten finalists regain the initiative while Stephen O’Malley and Damien Coleman were also on target.
Meanwhile Breaffy keeper Rob Hennelly was off target with three long-range place kicks as his side struggled to get the scoreboard moving.
In fact, their only score of the opening half from play came from Gareth Dunne as Ballintubber defended well
The second half was more entertaining affair as both teams threw off the shackles and started to play with a more direct approach as well as pace.
Cillian O’Connor tagged on three further points from frees as Breaffy’s backline continued to foul inside his range.
But Ballintubber were unable to pull away despite their territorial dominance, and Breaffy stayed in touch with points from Tommy Reilly, Gary Fadden and Conor O’Shea.
Netminder Hennelly also broke his duck when he finally landed a long-range free and the tension went up a few notches in the closing stages as Breaffy drew level courtesy of a Conor O’Shea free.
Breaffy substitute Colum Dravins and Ballintubber’s Ciarán Gavin were both shown black cards as the stakes continued to mount.
Down the home stretch Ballintubber, playing their third game in 14 days, showed no illeffects of their two marathon semi-finals, both of which had gone to extra-time.
Instead they managed to create a scoring chance for Diarmuid O’Connor who split the posts in style from 35 metres out on the left wing in the final minute of normal time.
Breaffy pushed hard during the five minutes of additional time but were unable to dig out an equaliser with Aidan O’Shea off target from a free.
This latest Ballintubber success was masterminded by their 36 year-old manager, Kevin Johnson, a native of Sligo. Victory means the Abbeysiders have now won four county senior titles in nine seasons.