Ballina Stephenites and Knockmore advance to Mayo SFC final

06 Oct 2024, 17:28 by Colm Gannon · The42

Ballina Stephenites 1-18 Ballaghderreen 2-12 (AET)

Knockmore 2-15 Breaffy 0-18

Colm Gannon reports from Hastings Insurance MacHale Park

IT WILL BE an all-North Mayo showpiece in the Mayo GAA Senior Football Championship final after Ballina Stephenites and Knockmore emerged victorious in Hastings Insurance MacHale Park on Sunday.

In the first game of the day the defending champions Ballina Stephenites booked their place in the final after a hard fought extra-time win over Ballaghaderreen.

The sides were level at five points each at the break, but the game exploded into life early in the second half with Sean Regan’s looping effort deceiving Jamie Lunt for the first goal of the day.

Darragh Kelly levelled it up up 60 seconds later with a finish off the deck from close range, Luke Connor put the east Mayo men in front not long after and then on 38 minutes Kuba Callaghan netted for Ballagh’ and looked to have them set up for victory.

Ballina stuck to their task, and led by Sam Callinan, they edged themselves in front in injury time when Evan Regan swept over what looked like the winning point of the game. Ballaghaderreen managed to force one more chance in the fifth minute of injury time and were awarded a free that Callaghan made no mistake from to send the game into extra-time.

The champions came strong in extra time and with Frank Irwin and Conor McStay getting in on a scoring run that had their side three up with time almost up. Sharoize Akram had a glorious chance to level it up once more near the end but his effort was blocked on the line by Luke Doherty and Regan still had time to add one more score to send Ballina back into the final with four points to spare.

Extra time was also needed in the second game between Breaffy and Knockmore. With the sides deadlocked at 13 points each Aidan Orme looked to have a chance to make it an all-North Mayo final with a close range free, but he pulled his effort wide on the near side in the second minute of injury time.

There was still time for Aidan O’Shea to win it for Breaffy with a long range effort right at the death but his effort dropped short and the game went to extra-time.

Breaffy led 0-8 to 0-7 at half time in a close fought affair and were in front until the 49th minute when Conor Flynn put his side in front with a well-taken effort to edge his side 0-13 to 0-12 ahead, O’Shea levelled it up with a pointed free to send the game into an additional 20 minutes.

The advantage looked to have swung Breaffy’s way when Knockmore were reduced to 14 men early in the first half of extra time and they went in leading 0-16 to 0-14 at the middle whistle.

But Breaffy were reduced to 14 themselves not long after the restart of the second half, which was followed by two Knockmore goals inside the opening five minutes of the second half of extra time from Charlie Bourke and Billy Ruane, sending the North Mayo men into the final against their near neighbours Ballina Stephenites in a fortnight’s time.