Second half goals by Jack Tunney and Thomas Shine were the decisive scores as Ballinlough were flattered by their nine point winning margin in the Junior D Championship in Carlanstown on Monday evening.
Ballinlough led from start to finish but it was only in the last ten minutes that they pulled clear, scoring 1-4 without reply. For a time during the second half Wolfe Tones were becoming more of a threat but with James Baugh, Vinny Ryan and Gary Reilly strong in defence the winners always held the upper-hand.
Kevin Mallen and Thomas Shine got early scores for Ballinlough and they went, 0-3 to 0-1, ahead in the 20th minute when Gary Reilly kicked a great point. Jack Tunney moved further out the field later in the half and kicked a good score to extend their lead and Kevin Mallen was also on target as Ballinlough went four points clear but Wolfe Tones’ Aidan Mc Keever pointed a free with the last action of the half to narrow the margin to three points; 0-5 to 0-2, at the interval.
Aidan Mc Keever kicked the first score of the second-half as Wolfe Tones started stronger but they were hit with a major set-back when they conceded a rather soft goal; a speculative effort by Ballinlough’s Jack Tunney went all the way to the net to put ‘The Reds’ ahead 1-5 to 0-3. However Wolfe Tones were far from finished and kicked three points in a row to come right back into contention; 0-6 to 1-5, with 14 minutes remaining.
But just when it appeared that Ballinlough were running out of steam they stepped it up considerably and points from Thomas Shine (2 frees), Kevin Mallen (free) and Jack Tunney gave them a little bit of breathing room. Wolfe Tones pushed everything into attack and then in the last action of the game they got caught by a Ballinlough counter attack as Vincent Ryan made a vital block close to his own goal and the ball moved up field where Kevin Mallen picked out Thomas Shine close to goal and the corner forward finished with his second attempt to seal a slightly flattering result for Ballinlough.
Ballinlough: M. Brady, J. Baugh, V. Ryan, J. O’ Reilly, J. O’ Higgins, G. Reilly (0-1), M. Geraghty, B. Smith, K. Mallen (0-3, 1f), J. Reilly, S. Deevy, N. Finlay, J. Tunney (1-2), C. Briody, T. Shine (1-3, 2f). Subs: D. Farrelly for Deevy.