Campbell leads
Ballyholland to
victory over Glassdrumman
ACFL II: Glassdrumman
1-07 - Ballyholland 1-15
An outstanding display from the flying
corner-back Eugene Campbell helped
a much improved Ballyholland senior
team to comfortably gain two points
away at Glassdrumman.
Having reached the halfway point of season in the Down county football leagues, Ballyholland haven’t yet hit top gear in any of their fixtures. This was something approaching their best though and for the full hour they worked their socks off and the direct result was a plethora of scoring opportunities and a handsome victory.
The one continual bright light in their season has been the form of Eugene Campbell, who has proven wonderfully adept in defence and quite destructive going forward. This game was no exception and he tortured the Glassdrumman danger man, Raymond Clarke, all evening long with his surging runs from deep.
The incessant drive that Campbell has shown all year was finally matched throughout by his teammates. Players like James Patterson, Robbie Quinn and Colman Smith were simply head and shoulders above their opponents on this occasion.
Another player who really caught the eye was Mattie Shields, who seemed to relish the responsibility of being restored to midfield. He led by example and never stopped talking throughout, while he also made and took some fine scores. In fact it was him who opened the scoring, with a tap over after Shane Mulholland had unhinged the home team’s defence with a deliciously weighted pass.
Ballyholland were enjoying the slight advantage of the wind during the first half and moments later Mulholland pointed an easy free after Paul Murphy’s winding run had been brought to an abrupt end.
The Harps were clearly on top at this early stage, but a moment of insanity saw Kieran Murphy drag Damien Grant to the ground, resulting in a penalty for Glassdrumman. The big midfielder Cormac Murphy stepped up and he calmly placed the ball in the bottom right corner of Shane Mullen’s goal, handing his side the lead.
It certainly was something of a setback for the visitors, but unfazed they went about restoring the lead in a very confident manner.
Campbell led the way and his efforts earned a long-range free which Mulholland sent over with casual ease. Robbie Quinn then opened his account with a nice point on the turn and Mulholland tapped over another free, before Paul Murphy finished off a great run with a well-taken point.
For long periods of the first half Glassdrumman struggled to put any moves together as they continually found themselves swamped by ferocious Ballyholland tackling. Mattie Shields was meting out a series of huge challenges while Campbell and Smith were hoovering up everything that went loose.
A long pass from Smith found Kieran Murphy the room to knock over a score, but a short free from Cormac Murphy, atoning for some earlier misses, brought some cheer to the home team. Further points were traded in the closing stages of the half, Quinn for Ballyholland and Pat Mallon with a huge effort saw Glassdrumman’s first score from play. This left three points in it for the second half, 1.2 to 0.8, which probably didn’t do justice to the away team’s performance.
The second half saw the Harps up their performance even further though and the game was over as a contest within ten minutes of the restart.
Mark O’Hare opened a Ballyholland scoring spree with a hooked effort from Quinn’s knockdown and although the Glassdrumman keeper somehow saved a point from Paul Murphy, there wasn’t much he could do about consecutive points from Shane Mulholland.
Then, with five minutes gone, a hopeful punt from Paul Murphy provided the key moment in the game. The high ball evaded everyone and bounced kindly into the hands of Mark O’Hare. The corner forward knows a thing or two about scoring goals and he made no mistake with a low drive past Paul Brennan.
The goal opened up a ten point cushion for the visitors and from then on the game lost some of its edge, as both sides knew what the final outcome would be. Robbie Quinn actually increased Ballyholland’s lead with the best point of the game, but Cormac Murphy’s influence on the game was growing and it was principally due to his efforts that Glassdrumman reduced the margin during the final ten minutes of the game.
First of all he launched an absolute monster of a free over the bar and then delivered a tremendous individual score after winning possession directly from a kick-out.
At the other end Brennan produced a fine stop to deny O’Hare a second goal, but Kieran Murphy put ten between the teams again with a short-range effort.
Ballyholland emptied their bench for the closing stages and Glassdrumman capitalised on the resulting lack of focus with three consecutive scores from Murphy, Clarke and Grant. The final score was to go the way of Ballyholland though and John Barry was the man who got on the end of a well-worked move to close proceedings with a looping point.
An emphatic eight points were between the sides at the final whistle and in truth there could have been even more in it. Glassdrumman were missing several key players from their forward line and they simply didn’t have the class or the cutting edge to overly worry the Harps rearguard. Indeed, each of their attacking options was outplayed by their direct opponent.
Their roaming corner-back Fintan O’Neill had a decent hour’s play, but the only home side player who could take any real distinction from the game was Cormac Murphy. The big midfielder is a very accomplished player and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Paddy O’Rourke having a look at him in county colours next season.
To a man Ballyholland played well and this really was a most welcome return to form for the visiting side. The passion, work rate and effort of each of the players was unquestionable, while some of the score-taking was exceptional. The verve and confidence of previous Ballyholland sides was also evident, especially during the second half – and managers Brendan Loughran and Art Ruddy were justifiably beaming ear to ear at the final whistle.
Player of the Match: Eugene Campbell
Ballyholland Team:
S Mullen, P McAteer (C Barry), D McCrink, E Campbell, R Murphy, James Patterson, John Patterson, P Murphy (0-1), M Shields (0-1) (P McKernan), R Quinn (0-3) (A McNamee), S Mulholland (0-6, 5f), K Murphy (0-2), M O’Hare (1-1) (S Fitzpatrick), J Shields (J Barry 0-1)), C Smith.
Opponents Team:
P Brennan, F O’Neill, K Burns, K Smith, M O’Neill, B Burns, J Cunningham, C Murphy (1-4, 1p, 2f) P Mallon (0-1), G McGreevy, S Brennan, S McDowell, R Clarke (0-1), D Grant (0-1), P McDowell.
Referee: n/a
Match Report by: AMN
