Ballymac 2-13 Annascaul 2-10

On a fine evening, Ballymac played host to Annascaul in to round 5 of The Co. League.  A miute’s silence was observed in memory of the President of Annascaul Gaa, Joe Kennedy, who passed away recently.  The game had a promising start within the first minute for the Annascaul side when they were awarded a penalty, when a Ballymac player picked the ball straight off the gorund and Annascaul’s full forward James Crean made no mistake scoring from the spot.  Annascaul moved the ball fast and were well on top for the opening minutes, but didn’t manage to score, kicking three wides in quick succession.  Then in the third minute, James Crean found himself one on one with the Ballymac keeper Paudie Laide, who in the end pulled off a remarkable save to keep Ballymac in the game.  Ballymac got their first score of the game through Cian Counihan, after a great turnover from Ballymac. The two teams traded two points each over the next ten minutes, until the 15^th minute, when Aidan Breen scored a great goal following another phase of tough tackling form Ballymac, which resulted in a turnover and Aidan through on goal.  The teams traded scores again for the rest of the half, with the pick of the bunch being from Vinny Horan who took on his man and ended up hand passing the ball over the bar.  Half time score:   Ballymac 1-07  Annascaul 1-05.

The start of the second half was quiet to start off, taking five minutes for the first score of the half from the ever reliable Liam Dunne, who attacked from the back and put the ball over the bar.  Then Annauscaul showed great heart and battled back through a very quick goal from the kickout, where centre forward Jason Hickson showed good pace and ended up scoring a goal into the bottom right corner.  Then Ballymac rallied on, scoring 1-01 through Vinny Horan who scored a well taken goal into the roof of the net.  Great work by Genie Griffin and Kevin O’Shea led to the goal for Vinny. Once again, the two teams traded scores for 15 minutes where wing forward for Annascaul, James Scanlon, scored a beautiful point on his right foot from the right hand side.  Then came the last ten minutes, which were very eventful for both teams.  It started off in the 54^th minute when Ballymac were reduced down to 14 men when one of their own got a second yellow . Minutes later, the home side suffered again when a black card was shown. Annauscal were then handed their own black card, reducing them to 14.  Annauscaul were well on top for the last few minutes, but couldn’t find the net. The game ended with Ballymac getting a hard fought victory, which will truly stand to them for the rest of the league campaign.