FIRST DEFEAT FOR SENIORS

Ballybay fell to their first Championship defeat of the season when they were defeated by Castleblayney 0-13 to 0-11 last Sunday in Pearse Park. Ballybay, who were missing several regulars through injury and a dubious suspension played into a strong wind in the first half. Chris McGuinness opened the scoring and after Blayney responded with 2 points, Shane McGuinness restored parity. Ryan Wylie pulled us level at 3 each with a fisted point and then pointed from distance to give us a 0-4 v 0-3 lead only for Blayney to level at the water break. Ballybay then scored 3 in a row from Chris from a tight angle, Ciaran Galligan from distance and Chris’ third from a close in free following great work by his brother. Blayney closed the gap with 2 points to leave the half time score 0-7 v 0-6 in our favour.
We opened the second half well with Shane McGuinness’ second point but Blayney then gained a grip around the middle and in the next period, reeled off 6 points in a row to give themselves a lead they would never surrender. Shane narrowed the gap with 2 points but Blayney scored next to leave a goal in it and despite a late flurry only a Shane Monaghan point was registered to leave us 2 in the hole at the final whistle.
It is a setback which makes the upcoming meeting with our near neighbours Latton on 2nd October to be a must win game.
Team and Scorers:
A White, A Dixon, T McSkean, B Wylie, S Monaghan (0-1), D Wylie, D Caraher, C Lennon, C Galligan (0-1), R Wylie (0-2), M Hannon, S McGuinness (0-4), C McGuinness (0-3), E McKearney and S McQuillan.
Subs :
T Kerr for E McKearney, D McCann for S McQuillan and P O’Neill for D Caraher