Ballycumber 1-11 Bracknagh 0-11

[Lone Shark]

(Apologies folks, this was the only game I got to over the weekend due to prior commitments)

Famous for Fifteen Minutes, Horrendous for Forty Five


In their opening match of this championship, Ballycumber surged into a ten point lead against Erin Rovers, before completely slowing down and allowing their parish rivals back into the game. A five point winning margin that day was no reflection of the difference in abilities of the two sides, even if it did reflect the balance of the game adequately. Most observers would have assumed that Ballycumber would have gone away from that game with a clear focus on putting in a solid performance over the whole hour. Instead what we saw on Sunday in Capincur was an even more exaggerated version of this Jekyll and Hyde play, with a first fifteen minutes that was simply sublime, followed by three quarters of an hour of solid mediocrity descending into dross on occasion.

In the first fifteen minutes of this game, Ballycumber scored 1-7 – subsequent quarter hour periods yielded totals of 0-3, 0-1, and no score respectively. While this can obviously be partially explained by the resilience and persistence of Bracknagh, ultimately the Laois border outfit were weak in several areas of the pitch and short on real star quality, and a side aiming - not unrealistically in Ballycumber’s case - for a county title should be able to consistently find and exploit these weak links over the course of the hour. With games against Shannonbridge and Edenderry to come, this kind of prolonged lapse in concentration will not go unpunished if it’s repeated.

None of this is to take away from the sublime football that Ballycumber played in that opening spell. A mistake from Bracknagh keeper Brian Fenlon got them off to a fantastic start. He spilled a high ball into the box, which was duly pounced on by Adrian Kelly – he then fouled Kelly, giving away a penalty which Rory Guinan converted, leaving his side a goal to the good with barely 2 minutes on the clock. Ciarán Grennan added two scores from play in the next couple of minutes, one particularly fine score from out on the right after a good catch and right footed pass by Diarmuid Daly. He added three more good frees off the ground, and combined with two Colm Quinn points, leaving the score at 1-7 to 0-2 midway through the half – the Bracknagh scores coming from a Glen Brereton free and Frank Weir.

The margin was to be the same at half time, both sides adding three more points in the meantime – the pick of the crop being a Frank Weir left footed shot from out near the sideline that split the posts, another fleeting glimpse of the potential that was never realised in a county shirt.

When Adrian Kelly got the first point of the second half with only three minutes gone, the score stood at 1-11 to 0-5, and at this point it seemed like only the winning margin was in question. Ballycumber had both the defensive tenacity and scoring power to keep Bracknagh at arm’s length, and only needed to do the basics right to close out an easy win. That they didn’t was due to a combination of a Bracknagh revival and a complete shutdown from Ballycumber. Their full forward line was no longer getting out in front and putting themselves in positions to receive passes from midfield, though Tom Bennett and Alan Coughlan can take a lot of the credit for this. Midfield was struggling to field any clean ball, and the half forward and half back lines gave up chasing breaks and supporting the man in possession with anything like an appropriate degree of gusto. Led by Declan Geoghegan and Frank Weir at midfield, Bracknagh slowly hauled themselves back into the game. A Brereton free on 37 minutes was the only score for a long spell, before Emmett Geoghegan, now operating in the full forward line, chipped over a nice point on 45 minutes to spark the revival. Points from Pascal Dempsey, Brereton from play, Weir and substitute Eugene Geoghegan were all tacked on, and with 8 minutes of regular time still to play, only a goal remained between the sides. During this time the Ballycumber defence was put to the pin of their collar to keep goalbound shots to a minimum, further exacerbated by the inability of the middle players to move the ball forward quickly and the complete lack of any effort from the inside forwards to obtain possession and alleviate the pressure felt further back. However the goal never looked like coming, and only a Pascal Dempsey left foot shot off the ground from twenty five metres would even have been regarded as a goal attempt, and it was comfortably wide of the target.

A win is a win, but this display would not have yielded a win over any other team in the Offaly senior Championship, and if Ballycumber are to deliver on their potential and bridge the 37 year gap since their last county title, they’ll have to learn to play for full matches. Otherwise they will find themselves running out of matches sooner than they’d like. For Bracknagh, they remain favourites for relegation, but will take encouragement from their resilience and tenacity shown here, and will be confident of improved displays in the big clashes with Shannonbridge and Erin Rovers to come.



Scorers:
Ballycumber: Ciaran Grennan 0-6 (0-4 frees), Rory Guinan 1-1 (pen), Colm Quinn 0-3 (0-1 free), Adrian Kelly 0-1.
Bracknagh: Glen Brereton 0-5 (0-4 frees), Frank Weir 0-3, Emmett Geoghegan 0-1, Pascal Dempsey 0-1, Eugene Geoghegan 0-1.
Teams:
Ballycumber: Paul Kelly; Peter Flynn, Francis Bannon, Declan Daly; Sean Hackett, Karl Daly, Diarmuid Donoghue; Ger Egan, Diarmuid Daly; Fergal Daly, Rory Guinan, Nigel Grennan; Adrian Kelly, Colm Quinn Ciaran Grennan.
Subs: Brian Halligan for Ger Egan, Glen Halligan for Diarmuid Donoghue.

Bracknagh: Brian Fenlon; Alan Coughlan, Barry Weldon, Tom Bennett; Johnny Carroll, Dermot Dempsey, David Connolly; Declan Geoghagan, Frank Weir; Robbie Barron, Pascal Dempsey, Emmett Geoghegan; Glen Brereton, Richard Weldon, David Cassidy.
Subs: Eugene Geoghegan for David Cassidy.


Referee: Con Costello