Kildimo-Pallaskenry prevail in thrilling Limerick Football Championship derby with Ballysteen

A FINAL quarter surge saw Kildimo-Pallaskenry snatch victory from neighbours Ballysteen in round one of the Irish Wire Limerick Senior Football Championship on Friday evening.

In Rathkeale it finished Kildimo-Pallaskenry 1-13 Ballysteen 3-6.

The winners bounced back from the depths of adversity to score 1-6 without reply in the final quarter and squeeze past their rivals Ballysteen by the narrowest of margins in Rathkeale’s Seán Finn Park.

It wasn’t just the last gasp drama that turned this into a memorable night of football that kept the crowd on their feet right up to Donnacha O’Callaghan’s final whistle. With contrasting tactics being employed as Ballysteen used the long delivery to allow speedster Danny Neville to race at, through and around the challenges and Kildimo-Pallaskenry  used the power of the county midfield duo Cathal Downes and Tony McCarthy to prise open the channels in the opposing defence, fortunes rose and waned with the side in blue and white fighting back every time they were zapped by a Ballysteen goal and yet looking as if the clock had run out of them until their smash and grab job right at the death.

Although Ballysteen pressed forward in the early stages, they failed to find the target until McCarthy ended seven scoreless minutes but they replied a foul for Darragh Ranahan to convert and, after Eoin Condon cleared off the line off a goulmouth fumble, the game was level again when James O’Sullivan replied to Paudie Hartigan. However, after Lorcan O’Leary’s snap shot was stopped on the line by Brian Neville, down at the other end Ballysteen showed their opponents how to find the net when Danny Neville streaked through the defence and laid off for Joey Rush to fist home.

Pakie Moran, coming up from full-back, sent over a ’45’ to put four between the sides as wayward finishing wasted Kildimo-Pallaskenry chances to reply before Peter Nash finally found the target coming up to the break. However, the Deelsiders had the last say in the opening period when Rushe struck from a tight angle to leave his side going into the dressing-room with an advantage of 1-4 to 0-3.

Two minutes after the restart, the gap reached serious proportions when Rushe returned the favour to feed Neville at full pace to blast home an unstoppable shot into the top far corner but the Pallaskenry team weren’t giving up and pressed forward in numbers Cathal Downes, Nash from play and Nash’s free wiped out effect of conceding the second goal. However, their efforts left them open to the quick break from the back and were caught by Neville finding Rushe and Pádraig Murphy to split the posts.

Nash drew a foul to reply himself off the free but, coming up to the three-quarter mark, the wind was sucked from their reply when a lightning move from deep in the Ballsteen own half found half-time sub Sam Colgan to rattle home his side’s third goal. However, with their opponents falling further back into defensive mode, Kildimo-Pallaskenry plugged away for Ciarán McMahon and Downes to strike back but, with just ten minutes left on the clock, there was still a gap of six to overcome.

After seeing two frees go wide of the mark, Downes found his range from a ’45’ and, suddenly, it was game on when Nash dodged through the challenges to float across the goalmouth for Ryan Kelly to volley to the net and the margin was back to the minimum when Nash immediately followed up from a free. But the momentum stalled once again, long clearances drew fouls for Ballysteeen to ease the scoreboard pressure but they failed to put a pair of frees over before, deep into added time, Kildimo-Pallaskenry drew a foul on the ’45’ to equalise and another from almost the same distance to snatch a fairytale victory.

SCORERS: KILDIMO-PALLASKENRY: Peter Nash (3 frees), Cathal Downes (2 frees, 1 ’45’) 0-5 each, Ryan Kelly 1-0, Paudie Hartigan, Tony McCarthy, Ciarán McMahon 0-1 each. BALLYSTEEN: Joey Rushe 1-3, Danny Neville, Sam Colgan 1-0 each, Darragh Ranahan (free), Pakie Moran (’45’), Pádraig Murphy 0-1 each.

KILDIMO-PALLASKENRY: Kevin Walsh; Mossy Sheehan, James Ranahan, Eddie McLoughlin; James Pomeroy, Conor Staff, Ciarán Barry; Cathal Downes, Tony McCarthy; Ciarán McMahon, Garry Sheehan, Jack Mullane; Paudie Hartigan, Lorcan O’Leary, Peter Nash. SUBS:Ryan Kelly for Mossy Sheehan (46 minutes), Shaun Barry for Lorcan O’Leary (50 minutes), Ross Allen for Paudie Hartigan (58 minutes).

BALLYSTEEN: Brian Neville; Jason Daly, Pakie Moran, Eddie Murphy; Luke Gammell, Shane Gallagher, Eoin Condon; Pádraig McMahon, Jamie O’Sullivan; Seán Whelan, Darragh Ranahan, Paul O’Shaughnessy; Joey Rushe, Pádraog Murphy, Danny Neville. SUBS: Tomás Sheahan for Eddie Murphy (26 minutes),Sam Colgan for Paul O’Shaughnessy (halt-time), Mike Boyce for Pádraig McMahon (54 minutes), John O’Shaughnessy for Seán Whelan (54 minutes).

REFEREE: Donnacha O’Callaghan (Castlemahon).