Walterstown opened their Meath GAA Reserve Cup campaign with a three point victory over visitors Ballivor on Sunday morning last.
Reserve Cup Division 1 Group D Round 1
Walterstown: 0-6
Ballivor: 0-3
This low scoring affair finished 0-6 to 0-3 in favour of the home side and certainly won’t go down as a classic but nonetheless it was an important win for Walterstown with tough tests away to St Colmcilles and Trim yet to come.
It was Ballivor who enjoyed the better of the early exchanges on Sunday and they found themselves 0-2 to 0-0 to the good after only two minutes. However, the failed to score for the reminder of the half.
Walterstown opened their account on five minutes when Eoin Roche split the posts before the returning Stephen Davis converted a free some four minutes later to restore parity.
At the midway point of the first half Jack Doyle found the distance and accuracy from a 45 to nudge his side in front and, once again, Roche split the posts to leave the home side leading 0-4 to 0-2 after 17 minutes. Indeed that was to be the last score of the half and after the turnaround scores were even more hard to come by.
It took 21 minutes of the second half before those in attendance were treated to a score and it went the way of Ballivor and left only the minimum (0-4 to 0-3) between the sides.
Having made his adult football debut the previous day in the Blacks’ Corn na Boinne victory over Dunderry, former Meath minor star Neil McGinley came off the bench and nabbed his side’s first score of the final half in the 53rd minute and left Walterstown in front by two once more.
Ballivor had plenty of chances but their shooting let them down on more than one occasion and when corner back Breandan McGuinness found himself in front of the posts, he slotted over and that was that; a three point win for Neil Reynolds’ side.
Up next for Walterstown is an away trip to St Colmcilles next Saturday at 6.30pm.
Click here to read our match report from Saturday’s Corn na Boinne win over Dunderry.
SCORERS: Walterstown – Eoin Roche 0-2, Stephen Davis 0-1 (1f), Jack Doyle 0-1 (1 ’45’), Neil McGinley 0-1, Breandan McGuinness 0-1.
WALTERSTOWN: Caoilinn Campbell-O’Brien; Breandan McGuinness, Jack Wilson, Cormac Freeman; Ciaran Cox, Eoghan McCague, Ross Renolds; Jack Doyle, Conor O’Sullivan; Troy Campbell-O’Brien, Jack Harte, Paddy Donnellan; Eoin Roche, Stephen Davis, Johnny Geoghegan. SUBS: Padraic Freeman, Neil McGinley, Eoin Finlay, Joey Coogan, Charlie Reilly.
REFEEE: Ian Dowdall
