Intermediate team narrowly beaten. Belmullet 2-7 Mayo Gaels 1-7
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Intermediate team narrowly beaten. Belmullet 2-7 Mayo Gaels 1-7
November 8, 2018
Our intermediate team were narrowly beaten in round 2 of the Egans Jewellers Intermediate Football Championship – Group 4 game away to Belmullet on July 1st by a score line of 2-7 to 1-7.
The Gaels were very slow to get into the game, even though they had the help of the breeze and did not record their first score until the twelfth minute. By this time they were three points behind with Belmullet running freely through the defence. To stem the attack, Keith Walsh was introduced after five minutes and his pace helped to close down some of the Belmullet movement. Mally Byrne was the one who got that twelfth minute point from a free kick and it was Mally who was unlucky minutes earlier when an effort came back off the post. This was just a brief respite from the onslaught however as Belmullet recorded a goal and another point before Kevin Lynch put one over from play. The goal was a result of more strong running through the middle of the Gaels’s defence by E McAndrew who passed to C Barrett and his shot deflected two or three times before ending up in the back of the net.
Belmullet put over their last point of the first half on the twenty-first minute before The Gaels finally got their act together. Niall Brett put over a free from the forty-five meter line and Mally Byrne’s second point was after some great running by Joe Walsh. Mally finished the half with a fine point from the right hand sideline to leave the half-time scores at 1-5 to 0-5. The Gaels would have it all to do in the second half against the breeze and the many wides recorded in those first twenty minutes would come back to haunt them.
Danny Burke replaced Stuart McLoughlin at the start of the second half and all were hoping that the injury that had kept him out would not affect his game too much. Belmullet however got the dream start as a high ball into the crowded Gaels’s box in the first minute slipped through the hands of Paul Mannion. It was a hammer-blow that would ultimately divide the sides. However, there was plenty of time to recover and Niall Brett got his second point after he was put through by Danny Burke in the third minute. For the next fifteen minutes The Gaels were doing all the running but could not score. Mally again hit the woodwork and too many other efforts went wide. Belmullet were feeling the pressure and four players received yellow cards trying to slow the game down. They finally got their first point of the half on the nineteenth minute.
Following a foot-block in the large area on the twenty-second minute, the Gaels were awarded a penalty and Adam Gallagher made no mistake. This left the score line 2-4 to 1-4 with five minutes left in normal time. Belmullet’s Chris Barret scored their last point on the twenty-seventh minute and Kevin Jordan finished the scoring for Mayo Gaels with a fine point on the twenty-ninth minute. Even though the referee played seven minutes of extra time, the Gaels could not get the scores that they deserved for all their work, even hitting the butt of the post in the dying minutes. They had a total of thirteen scoring chances in that second half and only converted three. Much improvement in the finishing element of the game is required before the third round in three weeks time against Moy Davitts.
Mayo Gaels: Paul Mannion, Noel Quinn, Anthony Byrne, Paul Walsh, Stuart McLoughlin, Fintan Canavan, Shane Vahey, James fallon, Joe Walsh, Kevin Lynch (0-1), Martin Connor, Adam Gallagher (1-0, 1p, Mally Byrne (0-3, 1f), Sean Boyle, Niall Brett (0-2, 1f). Subs: Keith Walsh for Fintan Canavan, Danny Burke for Stuart McLoughlin, Kevin Jordan (0-1) for Shane Vahey.
