Ulster SFC Club quarter-final: Kilcoo 2-14 Ballybay 1-7
With one bound they were free. All-Ireland champions Kilcoo, having grappled a way out of their county championship, surged through this AIB Ulster SFC quarter-final in Clones, before a crowd of 3,543, and crushed their Monaghan counterparts Ballybay, conquerors of Crossmaglen only a week previously.
Their well-practised and signature game set and sustained a tempo that Ballybay couldn’t match over the hour. Two second-half goals put the match to bed but it had been sitting there in its pyjamas for a while by then.
For a side that delivered such a powerful second half against Cross, Ballybay mightn’t have been unhappy to go in just three points adrift at half-time but for two considerations.
Firstly, they had just played with a stiff breeze and second their relative competitiveness owed much to a five-minute spell that had whirled them back into the match but for the rest of it they couldn’t lay a glove on the champions.
Having slipped four behind and yet to register a score, Ballybay made some progress by going long into the full forwards, a strategy that hinted at discomfort for Kilcoo. Chris McGuinness got in on goal but Niall Kane – who had already kicked a tricky free into the wind – saved smartly for a 45.
Thomas Kerr converted and four minutes later, they were level. There was an element of fortune involved in that Colm Lennon’s shot came back off the post and left Daniel Caraher loose in front of the goal. He was taken down for a penalty, which was converted by Shane McGuinness: 0-4 to 1-1.: 0-4 to 1-1.
A further chance followed immediately for Ballybay but Michael Hannon, up from the full-back line, blasted wide. Within seconds, his famously adventurous Kilcoo counterpart Ryan McEvoy kicked a point at the other end and they were never caught again.
The implacable way they simply rebuilt their temporarily disappeared lead was ominous for the Monaghan team.
“I think the penalty came at a very good time for them,” said manager Conleith Gilligan afterwards, “where I thought we were very dominant and I thought we might have been able to kick on but we didn’t and let them in and that allowed the game to be taken to half-time. Then we had to regroup and go again.”
Veteran Paul Finlay threatened resistance immediately on the restart when kicking a smart point to cut the deficit to two, 1-3 to 0-8 but within a minute, the game was up.
Darryl Branagan, excellent at breaking from defence, got the attack rolling and new Down manager Conor Laverty picked out Ryan Johnston, who got through on goal and kicked the ball in off the frame – unstoppable and fatal to Ballybay’s prospects. Five down, they looked as likely to escape in a spaceship as to close a gap like that.
Laverty’s influence had been growing from the second quarter and after half-time he was everywhere: helping out at the back, acting as link man – the assist for Johnston – and in the 55th minute, he kicked a point.
Ballybay needed goals but against the wind, they couldn’t manufacture any further chances. According to Gilligan, Kilcoo tightened up after the chinks uncovered in the first half.
“They scored 14 goals in the Monaghan championship and got two against a really good Crossmaglen team so we knew that was in them. Even in the first half, they did open us up for two goal chances that I suppose we wouldn’t have been happy about.
“If they had got one of them, the game would have been slightly different in the second half. They won the toss and opted to play with the breeze and we knew we would be under pressure right from the start and we coped with it really well.”
Just after Laverty’s point, wing-back Micheál Rooney applied the coup de grace, breaking from defence and touching in a goal after a sweeping move between replacement Seán McCusker and Ryan Johnston.
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In injury time there was one dissonant note for Kilcoo when Dylan Ward was sent off for a second yellow card.
Gilligan addressed the big issue of the week, Jerome Johnston senior’s stepping away from managing Ballybay in order to avoid a clash with home club, sons and extended family.
“Look, you can’t ignore it. You obviously have sons. The boys were brilliant within the team. I’ve never seen them as focused and there was a wee bit of pressure on them coming into the game because of it. I thought they performed really well. It was a difficult situation for everybody. I thought Jerome handled it brilliantly and it’s just unfortunate the way it turned out.”
The champions go on to play Enniskillen Gaels in the Ulster semi-final.
KILCOO: N Kane (0-1f); N Branagan, R McEvoy (0-2, 0-1f), A Branagan (0-2); A Morgan, D Branagan, M Rooney (1-0); A Morgan, D Ward; C Doherty (0-2), R Johnston (1-1), S Johnston; C Laverty (jc; 0-1), J Johnston (0-1m), P Devlin (0-4, 0-3f, 0-1 ‘45′). Subs: T Fettes for Morgan (39 mins), S McCusker for Doherty (52 mins), A Branagan (jc) for N Branagan (58 mins), C Rooney for R Johnston (60 mins), M Hynes for Rooney (60 mins),
BALLYBAY: J Sniauksta; M Hannon, T McSkean, E McKearney (capt); S Monaghan, C Lennon (0-1), R Wylie; D Ward (0-1f), D Wylie; C Galligan (0-1), S McGuinness (1-0, penalty), D Caraher; P Finlay (0-2, 0-1f), C McGuinness, T Kerr (0-1, ‘45′). Subs: A Toner (0-1) for Caraher (half-time), B Wylie for Monaghan (50 mins), P O’Neill for McKearney (57 mins), S Caraher for Finlay and S McQuillan for D Wylie (61 mins).
Referee: N Cullen (Fermanagh).
