The Ballinasloe Junior A Football team finally won promotion to Intermediate football for 2013 after a long campaign in the Junior A championship in 2012. They have been in Junior A since 2002, and in 2010 they were defeated by Salthill in a county final. It has been said a team has to lose a final to win one. In the first round of the championship Ballinasloe had a great win over Milltown with a score of 3-13 to 9 pts. The next game was against Claregalway with Ballinasloe winning by 12 pts to 7 pts which saw them reach the quarter final stage against St. Gabriels. They defeated them on a scoreline of 2-12 to 10 pts. That brought them into the North Semi-final against Tuam Stars, where a late point from Paddy Ryan set up by Denis Glynn, drew the game 12 pts each. The replay saw another battling encounter where Ballinasloe came away with a one point victory 11 pts to 10 pts with Darragh McCormack getting the crucial score. This saw Ballinasloe through to the North Final with another victory over Caltra on a scoreline of 1-11 to 8 pts, with Liam Lynch getting Man of the Match scoring 1-5. Next up was the County Final against Clifden in Pearse Stadium; again it took a replay to separate the two teams, Ballinasloe 1-9 Clifden 12 pts. with Captain Keith Kelly scoring a pressure free from a great distance out to level the game. On the second day out Ballinasloe won by 1pt over a gallant Clifden team Ballinasloe 2-16 Clifden 4-9 with Paul Whelehan named Man of the Match. This was an outstanding game of football with many favourable comments from the neutrals at the game. We were also successful in the subsequent Connacht Junior Club Championship, defeating Leitrim Gaels, 3-17 to 8pts and the Neale, Mayo Junior Champions, on a score of 2-6 to 9pts, in a tight game in Duggan Park. This brought us to a Connacht Final in Kiltoom, against the Roscommon Champions, Oran, where we were victorious, on a score of 4-11 to 7pts with Keith Kelly getting man of the match award. Ballinasloe pulled away for a comfortable victory in the last 10 minutes. The players managed to keep their focus on the game despite watching team mate Colm Riddel being airlifted to hospital after an accidental injury, thankfully Colm has made a full recovery. A trait of this team has been their ability to score goals at vital times at all matches, with goals coming from a variety of players. Over 11 Championship games the team has scored 18 goals 130 pts – a tremendous scoring rate. Tribute must be paid to this group of players for their dedication and commitment during the year, the panel is a good mixture of youth and experience with Nathan King, Eoin Fenton, Shane Kenny, Liam Lynch, Shane Kelly, Declan Nevin, Paddy Ryan, Jason Twohig and Keith Kelly giving great leadership and direction to the younger members Paraic Cunningham, James Shaughnessy, Marcus Kelly, Luke Tierney, Darragh McCormack, Garry Canavan, Paul Whelehan and Darragh Burke. Other members of the panel gave excellent performances when called upon were Ronan O’Healy, Dennis Glynn, Niall Hynes, Conor Kelly, Colm Riddel, Michael Colohan, Alan McDonagh, Cormac Casey, Stephen Cogavin and Bryan Minton. All help with sponsorship from local businesses is greatly appreciated. Special thanks to the local Carlton Shearwater Hotel and manager Martin Daly for sponsoring the team and all their help during the year. Hopefully this group of players with be able to take our club back to senior level where 30 years ago this year Ballinasloe (St. Grellans) were crowned County Senior Champions. Two members of that team, Sean Riddell and Pat Cunningham are the current Manager and Selector respectively, the rest of the backroom team are Cathal Coleman, Lloyd Kelly and Cathal Croffy and our physio Jeffrey Casey. Our Junior B team, under Dan Moynihan, exited the championship after a gallant performance against Tuam, in a tie which went to a replay and then extra time, before we eventually went down by 2 points. All in all, a great year, leading us to an AllIreland semi-final in Feb 2013, which will hopefully lead to a day out in Croke Park. BALLINASLOE FOOTBALL FROM JUNIOR TO INTERMEDIATE AND BEYOND Frank Burke presents the Connacht Junior Cup to Keith Kelly - Captain 34
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