A League Div 3–Walterstown VS Ballinlough in Walterstown May 22 2019
Walterstown played Ballinlough in the 8th Rd of the A League on Wednesday night. Walterstown who had only 3 wins and a draw from the previous 7 matches badly needed a win to give themselves an outside chance of qualifying.
Walterstown registered their first point from an Alban Crosbie free after 1 minute. Barry O Connell added a further Walterstown point to put the home team ahead by 0-2 to 0-1. Ballinlough drew level at 2 points each after 11 minutes. For the remainder of the half Ballinlough slowly pulled clear. They added 2 goals and 2 more points to their tally. Frustratingly for Walterstown’s management, their players had plenty of possession, which they were not converting to scores. When referee Pat Clarke blew for half time Ballinlough were 2-4 to 0-5 ahead.
In the second half Walterstown scored the first point but when Ballinlough replied with 2 points of their own the Blacks found themselves 6 points behind. However Walterstown stuck to their task. Alban Crosbie and Conor O Sullivan gained control at mid-field while the defence back boned by Conor Cullen and Davy Reynolds also tightened up their marking. Their wingbacks Aron McLoughlin and Mark McCormack worked tirelessly up and down the field. Conor Farrelly, in his first year playing adult football, seemed to cover every blade of grass on the field. From the 10th minute of the second half Walterstown gained control of the match and played some lovely football. Points from Crosbie, Brian O Connell and Robbie McDonnell left them only a goal behind. Then Walterstown’s midfielder Alban Crosbie scored the score of the match. In the 16th minute he got the ball 20 metres out and coolly drove it past a couple of defenders and the despairing Ballinlough keeper, into the corner of the net. The scores were now level at 1-9 to 2-6. Walterstown continued to pile on the pressure and nicely taken points from Mark McCormack and John Geoghegan put them 2 points clear. Ballinlough did score another point to bring the gap to 1 point in the 24th minute. However, Walterstown were unyielding . Their defenders had to withstand some determined Ballinlough attacks, while further well taken points from Brian O Connell, Aron McLoughlin and the evergreen John Geoghegan put the issue beyond doubt. Manager Joe Treanor was pleased with his team’s performance especially as he was missing a couple of players through injury. The final score line read 1-14 to 2-7.
Walterstown:: John Davis, Eoin O Mahony, Conor Cullen ,Colm Reilly , Mark McCormack(0-1) , Davy Reynolds, Aron McLoughlin( 0-1), Alban Crosbie (1-3,F3), Conor O Sullivan, Robbie McDonnell (0-2), John Geoghegan (0-3), Adam Treanor, Conor Farrelly, Brian O Connell (0-3,F2), Barry O Connell (0-1)
Subs-Paul Donnellan for Robbie McDonnell, Cathal McGuinness for Davy Reynolds, Joey Coogan, Paul Foy,
