Bunclody seal passage after thrilling conclusion
HWH-BUNCLODY 1-15 BALLYHOGUE 1-12
A HUGELY entertaining second half ended with HWH-Bunclody booking their quarter-final place in the Amber Springs/Ashdown Park Hotel Intermediate Football Championship in St Patrick’s Park on Saturday afternoon.
In a topsy-turvy final quarter, Bunclody trailed, led, trailed again but fought back to tie the game when the superb Eoin Kelly kicked his third point of the contest with just a minute of normal time remaining.
Both sides sprayed bad wides with the chance to take the lead in added-time but when the victors needed a hero up stepped Peter Atkinson with a powerful run and belting finish past Myles Roche to give his side a spot in the last eight.
Ballyhogue had the breeze in the opening half and, with Noel Roche on target five times, used it well initially to build a 0-7 to 0-1 lead after 13 minutes. However, they added just two more in the second quarter as a pair of Edward Dunbar points and a Kelly over left five between them at the break.
The Bree based club could have netted when Shane Doyle fired wide in the 42nd minute, it came at an important time as Bunclody were in the process of battling back and they levelled when Atkinson scored his fourth point of the half with ten minutes left.
A Colm Farrell over and a brace from Kevin Dunne pushed their side ahead for the first time but Ballyhogue bounced right back when Peter Kelly netted after great build-up play by Roche and Dean Doyle. Roche kicked his club back in front but there was still a sting in the Bunclody tail, Kelly levelled it before Atkinson provided the winner in stoppage-time.
While Bunclody are playing for their position in the table, having secured their berth in the quarters, Ballyhogue have have many a potential scenario in front of them. A loss against Duffry Rovers will mean they are in the relegation final regardless of other results.
Should they better Adamstown’s result they will avoid that fate. They can still qualify too but need to win and see St Fintan’s lose with a small swing in points difference. Then, providing Adamstown don’t win by a huge margin, they will book a spot in the quarter-finals.
HWH-BUNCLODY: Patrick Kavanagh; Billy Kelly, William Atkinson, Adam Hogan; John Dunne, Martin O’Connor, Colm Farrell (0-1); Peadar Cowman, Sean Kenny; Cathal Doyle, Eoin Kelly (0-3), Aidan Nolan (0-2, 1 free); Eddie Dunbar (0-3), Peter Atkinson (1-4), Kevin Dunne (0-2). Subs. - John Atkinson for Cowman, inj (39), Keith O’Hara for Doyle (47), David Reck for Dunbar (53), P. Cowman for W. Atkinson, inj (57).
BALLYHOGUE: Myles Roche; Colm Parnell, Enda Minogue, Thomas Moriarty; Graham Parker, Shane Doyle (0-1), Tony Ryan; Conor Byrne, Peter Kelly (1-0); Dylan Dalton (0-2), Sean Rochford, James Parle; Syl Byrne (0-1), Eddie Galavan, Noel Roche (0-8, 5 frees, 1 ‘45). Subs. - Dean Doyle for Dalton, temp (38-end), Cian Wickham for Galavan (42), Darragh Byrne for Minogue (51), Shane Roche for Rochford (56), Denis Lacey for S. Byrne (60+1).
REFEREE: John Carton (Monageer-Boolavogue).