Ballinderry Shamrocks

DERRY HEIRS: Ballinderry minors celebrate their moment of glory after a convincing victory over Monaghan champions Clontibret secured the Dale Farm Ulster Minor Football Championship at St Paul’s, Shaws Road on Saturday Picture: Gavan Caldwell

A much more compact, more balanced Ballinderry team romped to a deserved 3-7 to 1-9 victory over Clontibret and clinched a rare double. The Shamrocks is only the second club – Bellaghy being the other – to complete the double in the Ulster senior and minor championships.

Well before the final blow on Padraig Mullan’s whistle there was little doubt where the Jimmy McConville Cup was heading on Saturday evening. After a tight 45 minutes, Ballinderry slipped into overdrive to completely dominate the action, hitting 2-1 in the final quarter. Clontibret’s goal was only a face-saver as it arrived in the last minute of the game.

Despite the fact that the teams were level four times over the opening 27 minutes it wasn’t a rip-roaring game of football during the first half. Vincent Corey in midfield and Brendan Og Magennis at centre-back – he flew forward to loft over a magnificent levelling point in the 21st minute – were in excellent form for Clontibret but the balance of Ballinderry was missing from the Monaghan champions.

Ballinderry’s backline of Sean McGeehan, Conor Wilkinson and John McGuckin was superb with Wilkinson cutting out many dangerous raids.

However, it took the midfield of Ronan McCusker and Michael Muldoon some time to get to grips with the Corey twins but with James Bateson and Muldoon switching at times there was no damage done.

Half-back Michael McIvor stormed forward to open the scoring after two minutes for the winners but it was a rather fortunate goal in the 18th minute that left Ballinderry 1-5 to 0-6 ahead at the interval.

On the ‘40’ a Clontibret player seemed to be held but the referee blew him up for over-carrying.

The free-kick was punted forward to Colin Devlin who raced downfield before feeding the ball out to the wing. Devlin continued his run, took the return pass and fired home to put the Shamrocks 1-2 to 0-3 ahead.

The teams were level at 1-3 to 0-6 after points by Paul McGuigan and that fabulous score by Magennis. Each side scored another point before points by Ronan Devlin and Thomas Maynes left Ballindeery ahead 1-5 to 0-6 at the break.

During the third quarter, skipper Maynes, who won the Anne Marie Donnelly Memorial award as ‘Player of the Final’, and Vincent Corey swapped points before Ballinderry took complete command with a penalty goal in the 46th minute, setting them well on thr road to victory.

In one of their sweeping attacks, Ronan Devlin was clear in front of goals and, although he lost control, he was fouled by ‘keeper Paul McElroy.

Devlin took the spot-kick himself and fired the ball home under the diving McElroy who made a bold effort to stop the shot. Now 2-6 to 0-7 up the Derry club was on the way to that notable double. Ronan McCusker fielded a kick-out and returned the ball over the Clontibret bar and following a Paul McGuigan pointed free for the losers, the final nail was driven home by the Shamrocks.

Muldoon dropped the ball into the area and Maynes was there to pounce to give his team a 3-7 to 0-8 advantage with seven minutes left.

Dessie Mone had a great chance of snatching a Clontibret goal on 55 minutes but blazed wide. He then pointed and on the stroke of time Mone was again clear and this time made no mistake.

However, that goal came too late to change the picture as Ballinderry collected to silverware on a 3-7 to 1-9 scoreline. Five players were booked for personal fouls and a few otherss might also have been.

“We are pretty good at scoring goals and that makes 14 in the championship this season,” beamed Maynes.

“ I’m delighted to captain the winning team – it’s always great to captain any team but to captain a winning team in an Ulster final is magnificent.”