Ballyholland into the last eight with two brilliant goals

Two sublime second half goals were the game-changers that sent Ballyholand into the Down Senior Football Championship quarter-finals and knocked Warrenpoint out in a thrilling game at Pairc Esler on Friday night.

There was little between the sides in the first quarter and they were level three times, but three quickfire points from Ruairi McCormack, Sean O’Hare and Cailin Morgan saw CPN pull away. They led 0-7 to 0-4 at the break and looked to have the edge over Ballyholland manged by CPN’s former manager Shane Mullholland who had moved back to take charge of his home club.

The first of Harps’ maximums came from their goalkeeper Aodhan Furlong who was on a mission, moving all the way up to the CPN square, waiting for his chance to strike and seizing it with fisting to the net well set up by Seamus Loughran.

John Boyle's men led 0-8 to 0-4 before that, with 10 minutes of the first half played. Furlong was back in his goal seconds later when CPN's Donagh McAleenan, who finished with a tally of 0-5, almost replied with a maximum. But Furlong pushed the ball over the bar and two minutes after his goal, Loughran, who was their go-to man scoring all four of those Ballyholland points, produced a bit of individual magic with a brilliant run and drilling a second goal to the roof of the net to give Shane Mulholland's men a 2-4 to 0-9 lead – one that they would not relinquish.

They widened the gap to three, with the next two points and while the Blues battled hard to recover, with their strapped up manager Boyle even coming on in an attempt to steady the ship, there were only three more points each from that second goal when normal time was up, keeping Ballyholland in front by the minimum.

A frantic five minutes stoppage time ensued, with Warrenpoint throwing the kitchen sink at the Ballyholland defence, but they held firm and the scoreline remained 2-7 to 0-12 at the final whistle.

Scorers

Ballyholland: Seamus Loughran (1-4,3f), Aodhan Furlong (1-0), Ryan Connolly (0-1), Mark Walsh (0-1), Cathal Rushe (0-1)

CPN: Donagh McAleenan (0-5,4f), Ruairi McCormack (0-2), Sean O'Hare (0-2), Aaron Joe Magee (0-1), Cailin Morgan (0-1), Jack Elmore (0-1)

For full match report see this week's Newry Reporter in shops Wednesday September 11