St John’s clinch junior C crown in real style against brave Ballyphehane

St John’s 2-9 Ballyphehane 1-5

HAVING lost the Junior C final two years ago to Lough Rovers, St John’s made no mistake at the second time of asking with a deserved victory over Ballyphehane yesterday at Páirc Uí Rinn.

This game was over as a contest after 20 minutes as the Duhallow side blitzed their opponents to lead 2-6 to 0-1 and scoring two goals within a minute that ended the Ballyphehane challenge.

The city side were completely outplayed in this period as a better organised St John’s side were winning all the key battles.

However, Ballyphehane got into the game as they restricted St John’s to scoring just a single point over the next 45 minutes but they were finding scores hard to come by thanks to a well-organised defence.

Playing with the aid of the strong wind in the opening half Ballyphehane were trying to work the ball in close but a well-disciplined St John’s backline stood solid.

The Aubane Kilcorney-based side were prepared to shoot from distance and this paid dividends.

Neil Corkery opened the scoring with a pointed free inside the opening minute for St John’s and Jerome Ring and Brian Kelleher pointed from play for the Duhallow side.

Alan O’Mahony opened Ballyphehane’s account with a well-worked point after Cian O’Brien and Michael Cronin combined to set him up.

Points from Eric Barrett and Ring along with an Adrian Sheehan free extended the lead to five points.

Then the turning point came Kevin Sheahan and Peter O’Sullivan combined as Ring drilled the ball into the net.

From the kick-out Ballyphehane conceded a penalty and Adrian Sheahan convert the spot-kick to make it 2-6 to 0-1 after twenty minutes.

Ballyphehane picked themselves up and points from Sean Fielding and Alan O’Mahony left them trailing by nine points at the interval.

David Welch was brought in as a sub for Ballyphehane at the break and he converted a penalty after four points and Paul Mullins converted a free and it looked like game on.

But St John’s steadied the ship and points from Corkery and Adrian Sheahan saw them claim the trophy.

Scorers for St John's: J Ring 1-2, A Sheahan 1-2 (1-0 pen, 0-1f), N Corkery 0-3 (0-2f), B Kelleher, Eric Barrett 0-1 each.

Ballyphehane: D Welch 1-0 pen, A O’Mahony 0-2, P Mullins 0-1f, S Fielding, M Barry 0-1 each.

ST JOHN’S: K Kelly; D Kelleher, D O’Keeffe, P O’Keeffe; C Lane, S Kelleher, P Rohan (c); J O’Mahony, Eric Barrett; B Kelleher, A Sheahan, J Ring; P O’Sullivan, K Sheahan, N Corkery.

Subs: D Corkery for B Kelleher (33), D Barrett for O’Sullivan, Eoin Barrett for Eric Barrett (both 38), T Sheahan for Ring (59), J Cullinane for O’Mahony (60), P O’Connell for A Sheahan b/c (64).

BALLYPHEHANE: D Sweeney; J O’Brien, S Buckle, I O’Sullivan; M Cronin, O Sweeney, B O’Riordan; C O’Brien, M Sweeney; A O’Mahony, D Moore, J Thompson; S Fielding, C Horgan (c), P Mullins.

Subs: S Doyle for M Sweeney (22), D Welch for Horgan (ht), M Barry for A O’Mahony (37 inj), D O’Keeffe for Mullins b/c (47), D Luxford for Fielding (60).

Referee: B Sweeney (Shamrocks).