Ballycumber - Erin Rovers report

[Lone Shark]

(I'll have other reports, but this was my "commissioned" effort and as such was done up first!)

Schizophrenic Ballycumber do enough to win

Ballycumber 0-13 Erin Rovers 0-8

Supporters in Ferbane last Sunday evening saw two very different sides to Ballycumber as they got 2005 off to a good start with a win over fellow parishioners Erin Rovers. Their performance in the first half was a fine display of pace, good movement and distribution, controlled aggression and clinical finishing and served to illustrate why this particular outfit has all the tools to bridge a 37 year gap and capture the county title for only the second time in their history. In the second half, their play was ponderous and timid, and you saw how a team with such quality in their panel could find itself languishing in Group C.

A sharp wind was blowing from the town end throughout the game, and this could go some way towards explaining how they turned a nine point half time lead into a game that could have been lost were they against a side with more attacking weapons, but it doesn’t explain why Ballycumber’s inside forwards and break winners around the middle of the field were being outfought for every forward delivery and loose ball, and it doesn’t excuse their seven second half wides either. Though you never felt that they were in danger of losing this game, this kind of tepid display would not suffice in games to come over the summer.

Many of those in attendance will have felt that the game they watched lacked championship intensity at times, but some of the attacking play from Ballycumber in the first half was nothing short of sumptuous, and after taking some time to find their feet, they tore Erin Rovers apart with their movement and passing to leave the game very little short of settled at half time. Adrian Kelly and Ciaran Grennan were very much the tormentors-in-chief, and Adrian was the first man to get on the scoresheet with a right footed point on six minutes. A succession of wides left observers wondering if they were going to build up a sufficient lead before playing into the cold breeze in the second half, but points from Brian Halligan and Grennan eased the nerves midway through the half. At this stage the games only real goal chance materialised, Colm Quinn bursting through two tackles running from midfield and driving the ball low but inches right of the goals. Erin Rovers were struggling to make an impact up front, with Alan Lynam and Jeffrey Cuskelly looking lively but short on support. However as long as their opponents were struggling to find the target, they were going to be in contention. Their good fortune in this respect ran dry on twenty minutes, as a Rory Guinan point heralded the start of a purple patch for his team. Ciaran Grennan and Sean Hackett both pointed after some excellent interplay, and two more Grennan scores left Ballycumber eight to the good before Keith Lynam, starting at right wing back showed his forwards the way with a score from 30 metres out on the right hand side. All hope of going in on a positive note was extinguished however as further scores from Halligan and Grennan in injury time left the half time score at – 0-10 to 0-1.

If we had seen Dr. Jekyll in Ballycumber colours in the first half, he togged in at the break and let Mr. Hyde take the field in yellow and blue in the second. With Erin Rovers struggling to make any impact up front, opportunities to compound their advantage presented themselves with regularity, but only the wide count was augmented in the first ten minutes. Both poor finishing from good positions and poor shot selection were endemic, and their wide count could have been even worse but for several attempts which were skied and failed to even reach the dead ball line.

Alas for those seeking a competitive clash, Erin Rovers forwards were utterly unable to make any inroads into the Ballycumber lead. Paddy Lynam, Richard Fox, and Kevin Lynam were getting on top in their respective positions, and although they were often slow to play the ball into the forwards, anything that did cross the Ballycumber 45 was being swept up and dispatched back from whence it came with an absence of ceremony. David Poland and Jeffrey Cuskelly were occasionally making penetrating runs, but the height of their achievements was to draw occasional frees. In the end the starting front six from the light blues failed to register a score from play, which will no doubt be something that trainer Brendan Lowry, himself a very dangerous forward twenty odd years ago will look to address in the coming weeks and months.

However if Erin Rovers were lacking in penetration, their commitment and spirit never looked like failing at any stage throughout the hour’s play. Scores from Halligan, Nigel Grennan and Colm Quinn with only two replies from Fox and substitute Kevin McLoughlin had the score at 0-13 to 0-3 with a little over ten minutes remaining, but commendably the effort level never dropped despite the win being out of reach. Some good running at the Ballycumber defence yielded frees, a tactic no doubt noted by any other Group C club mentors or players in attendance, and Ian McLoughlin took the four chances he got well.

Ultimately though the winning margin was to be a mere five points, not a hammering by any stretch of the imagination, the gulf in potential between these two sides looks as unbridgeable as it ever was. Erin Rovers will have to find a lot of improvement on this to have any chance of taking points off Edenderry or Shannonbridge, and look destined to be fighting out relegation with Bracknagh in the months ahead. Ballycumber will have a lot of areas where they will feel the need to improve, not least in terms of maintaining concentration and possibly primary ball winning and support play from their midfield, but with an assured performance from their backs throughout, and in complete contrast all six starting forwards registering on the scoresheet from free play, they will be a side that will present a challenge for any team if they play at anything close to their potential.

Scorers:
Ballycumber: Ciaran Grennan 0-5 (0-1 free), Brian Halligan 0-3, Adrian Kelly 0-1, Rory Guinan 0-1, Sean Hackett 0-1, Nigel Grennan 0-1, Colm Quinn 0-1.
Erin Rovers: Ian McLoughlin 0-4 (frees), Keith Lynam 0-1, Richard Fox 0-1, Keith McLoughlin 0-1, Kevin Lynam 0-1
Teams:
Ballycumber: Paul Kelly; Peter Flynn, Francis Bannon, Declan Daly; Sean Hackett, Karl Daly, Diarmuid Donoghue; Ger Egan, Diarmuid Daly; Colm Quinn, Nigel Grennan, Brian Halligan; Rory Guinan, Ciaran Grennan, Adrian Kelly.
Subs: Fergal Daly for Sean Hackett.

Erin Rovers: Neville Dunne; Ollie Buckley, Paddy Lynam, Kevin Lynam; Keith Lynam, Ger Lynam, Barry Buckley; Paul Carroll, Richard Fox; Jeffrey Cuskelly, Alvin Buckley, David Poland; Alan Lynam, Tony Buckley, Ian McLoughlin.
Subs: Padraig Carroll for Ger Lynam, Enda Carroll for Ollie Buckley, Keith McLoughlin for Alvin Buckley, Dean Bracken for Tony Buckley.
Referee: Martin Walsh

[Percy Sledgehammer]

Lot of question marks over Ballycumber if you ask me. Ger Egan is just not a midfielder, and never will be. He wasn't yesterday anyway.

Rory Guinan has gone back a long way as well from the lad that burst on to the scene a couple of years ago.

I'd have liked to have seen the full back line tested too. It wasn't up against the most natural attackers in the world yesterday.