Lawless hits jackpot for Athenry

Date Published: {J}

Athenry 2

Ballinasloe Town 0

Mike Rafferty

in Lecarrow

ATHENRY were crowned kings of Connacht for the fourth time in five years as the seasoned campaigners comfortably saw off the challenge of a young Ballinasloe side in Sunday’s Junior Cup final in Lecarrow.

Scoreless at the break, the turning point arrived just 30 seconds after the restart as Benny Lawless finished from close range and when he added a stunning second just past the hour mark, it was the point of no return for Ballinasloe.

There after the Roscommon League side struggled to get into the last third of the park and try as they might, Ballinasloe just didn’t have the experience or manpower to overhaul an Athenry side who have being performing at this level for a long time.

The visitors started well as they used the vast expanses of Lecarrow to get wide men Alan O’Donovan and Gary Forde into the action. In central midfield Seamie Crowe and Gary Delaney were stroking the ball about and, indeed, the front two of Mark Moran and Lawless have early opportunities to make a breakthrough.

Home custodian Paul Hickey was like a sweeper at times as he patrolled the edge of his box and, on five minutes, he made his first major contribution as he gathered at the feet of Forde after some neat interaction between Crowe and Lawless had set him free behind the cover.

Shortly afterwards, Hickey was also well positioned to gather a soft Forde header at close range after an O’Donovan set piece delivery broke to him in the box. Ballinasloe took some time to get over the initial nerves and once they found their feet, they contributed hugely to a competitive opening half.

Having gained some momentu

m, full backs Niall Stack and Gary Egan began to get forward a lot more while out wide Gary Canavan and Markus Kelly were getting a supply into the front two of Liam Lynch and Mark Duffy.

Indeed, the duel between Lynch and central defender Emmett Byrne was physical and competitive throughout and while the striker certainly had his moments in the opening half, there is no doubt that the visitors’ skipper was the dominant force as the game progressed.

Lynch had Ballinasloe’s first clear sight of goal when the ball broke to him in the box, but the execution of the lob was less than perfect and the grateful Kieran Kilkelly collected in no man’s land. A Canavan header drifted wide of the target before Lynch could just find the side net after he had a few stabs at Stack’s right wing delivery.

By now Daragh Concannon and Robbie Brooks had found their feet in midfield and were instrumental as the home side enjoyed the majority of possession in the second quarter.

Concannon drilled an effort at Kilkelly from outside the b

ox and when a Kelly cross fell to Brookes in the box, the gap was there, but the ball would just not sit down for the midfielder and the visitors had a huge let off as he totally underhit an effort from close range at the custodian.

Crowe showed his class on 28 minutes with a measured through ball for Lawless, but credit Hickey as he was out in a flash to gather at his feet. Crowe later fired over after Forde made a good break. As the half developed, it was the home side who continued to contribute more to the game.

However, they just threatened on one occasion when a Lynch header on 34 minutes crashed off the crossbar. While the wind advantage wasn’t significant, it did favour Athenry in the second half and within a minute they had made a breakthrough.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.