7pm 22 June 2024
Mayo Super League
Ballyheane 4 Kiltimagh Knock United 1 (att 15)
This game felt rather low key for a Super League fixture. A clash with a major Gaelic football match, Mayo hosting Derry just a few miles away in Castlebar, may have accounted for the small crowd.
Kiltimagh Knock United went into the game in need of points to ease the threat of relegation. They began well, and although Ballyheane played the neater football it was the visitors who went ahead with a well-worked goal midway through the first half.
They held their lead, with little trouble, to half time. The home side began the second period in a more determined fashion, and dominated play. It became a game of attack versus defence.
Kiltimagh survived a few scares before the relentless pressure finally resulted in a home equaliser. That came with 15 minutes left, and just three minutes later Ballyheane were in front.
A third goal followed, as Kiltimagh were caught when trying the play the ball out from the back. The home side’s fourth, completing a rapid hat-trick for Ballyheane’s impressive Ben Edeh, was the game’s final kick.
When I arrived at Ballyheane’s Pat Quigley Park, and paid my 5eu admission, I was told the game would be on the ‘back pitch’. From a groundhopping point of view that could be a disappointment, although in terms of facilities there’s little difference between the venue’s two pitches.
Both are fenced off, and have dugouts. The ’back pitch’, furthest from the changing rooms, also has floodlights. At some point I’ll probably return for a game on the ‘main pitch’, which is no hardship in this part of the world, and in a league with a summer season.
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