Moynalvey opened their 2011 A League campaign with a hard fought three point victory over newly promoted Ballinabrackey at Dunganny on Sunday afternoon February 13th.
Moynalvey 0-9 St Ballinabrackey 0-6
The vast majority of this game was a tight encounter. Ballinabrackey opened the scoring within thirty seconds and doubled their advantage in the 15th minute, with both scores coming from frees. Two minutes later full forward Ciaran Collins opened the scoring for Moynalvey but Ballinabrackey regained their two point advantage in the 21st minute. Substitute James Weldon registered Moynalvey’s second score in the 26th minute, but within sixty seconds Ballinabrackey had pointed again. Collins took his tally to three points when sending over two fine individual efforts in the final three minutes of the half to leave the sides level on 0-4 apiece at the interval.
Moynalvey took the upper hand in the opening minutes of the second half pointing three times in the opening four minutes. During this purple patch, James Weldon registered his second with a well taken effort, good work from Luke Duffy saw the ball recycled back to Collins who notched his fourth of the day, and Collins then turned provider for Mark O’Sullivan who split the posts. Moynalvey’s dominance during this period should have seen them push their advantage to six points when a rasping effort at goal from O’Sullivan unluckily rebounded off the post. Having weathered the storm, Ballinabrackey endured their own period of dominance and by the 50th minute had reduced the deficit back to the minimum. A combination of some wasteful Ballinabrackey shooting and resolute Moynalvey defence ensured that this deficit wasn’t closed in the remaining ten minutes. Ray Ryan pointed from a placed ball in the 52nd minute after Barry O’Keefe was fouled and found his range once again from a free kick in the final few seconds to ensure a three point victory for Moynalvey.
Best for the winners were Robbie Kiernan, Barry O’Keefe and Ciaran Collins.
Team & scorers: G. Drum, R. Kiernan, P. Donoghue, S. Carroll, B. O’Keefe, J. Donoghue, P. Weldon, P. Conneely, D. Smith, M. O’Sullivan (0-1), S. Donoghue, L. Duffy, C. Ennis, C. Collins (0-4), R. Ryan (0-2). Subs used: J. Weldon (0-2) for Carroll, W. Byrne for Ennis.
