Ballinasloe Town strike early but injuries take a heavy toll

Salthill Devon 2

Ballinasloe Town 1

(After extra time)

Mike Rafferty at Eamonn Deacy Park

AN early Niall Stack goal gave Ballinasloe Town confidence and the longer the game went on the more belief they got, but it is very difficult to live on your nerves for 80 minutes in an important game – and so it proved in Sunday’s Connacht Junior Cup final at Eamonn Deacy Park.

Title holders Salthill Devon struck for a merited equaliser in normal time, before an extra time winner saw the City outfit retain the trophy that they had captured the previous year for the first time ever.

Without a doubt, Devon were the best side in the decider, but playing pretty football counts for little if you can’t gain a reward in the last third of the park. That was their problem all afternoon, but then Ballinasloe had a huge part in that as they defended as if their lives depended on it.

But Ballinasloe’s defensive cause was not helped as they watched skipper Des Hope depart the fray in the opening half with a injury and just after the restart striker Liam Lynch suffered a similiar fate. In quick succession, the Roscommon League side had lost the mainstays of their defence and attack.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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