AN EERIE silence will descend over south Down hurling outpost Ballela on Sunday afternoon because the community will travel en masse to roar their club to victory in their first Ulster final.
The Mourne county’s junior champions – who celebrated their 125th anniversary back in 2009 – will make the long journey from the outskirts of Banbridge to Owenbeg in Derry’s Sperrin Mountains full of confidence after scrapping tooth and nail to make it to this decider and they don’t intend to go home empty-handed. Two of their last three championship games have gone to replays and the other – last Sunday’s Ulster semi-final against Seán Treacy’s – was decided by a late goal.
“We’re keeping everybody on their toes,” joked manager Martin McCusker, a former Ballela player and underage mentor, who has risen through the ranks with a lot of this team.
“We’re a small parish, there’s only about 100 houses, but we’ve had a great following and the supporters are on the edge of their seats – everybody has come out to support us.”
Even club diehards couldn’t have predicted this run early in the season. Already robbed of hockey star Eugene Magee, who could play for Ireland at next year’s Olympic Games, McCusker couldn’t field a team in several league games because of injuries. Players gradually returned for the championship, but all looked lost when Ballela were down a man and trailing by a point in the Down championship final against Newry Shamrocks.
They levelled with the last puck of the game to scrape a draw, with the sort of fighting spirit that has become their hallmark. Extra-time was required in the replay, but Ballela blitzed the Shamrocks with eight points in the first 10-minute period to win with a bit to spare.
Next up was a strong St Mary’s, Rasharkin outfit in the Ulster quarter-final. Both sides missed chances to win the game in normal time, but the Antrim champions roared into a nine-point lead early in the second period of extra-time. Again, they were on the brink and, again, Ballela pulled off a remarkable comeback. There were two goals from Down dual star Malachy Magee followed by three points from his county colleague Johnny McCusker and it ended 3-20 to 2-23.
“They played their hearts out,” said manager McCusker.
“They never say die, they fight on to the very end.”
The sides met again at Loughgiel for the replay and Ballela battled back from behind once more, with Kelvin Magee sending over a point in injury-time to shade it 1-11 to 0-13.
Things weren’t much more straightforward against Armagh champions Seán Treacy’s in last weekend’s semi-final, but Johnny McCusker’s late goal decided the issue and Ballela’s players and supporters were able to start preparing for Sunday’s final in Owenbeg. McCusker admits his side have ridden their luck at times, but he feels they’re well worth their place in Sunday’s final.
“They’ve all been tight games,” he said.
“Shamrocks will probably feel they should have had the first match won, especially when we went down to 14 men. In the second match, it was nip and tuck and we hit a purple patch in extra-time and they couldn’t come back. Rasharkin will feel they left it behind after being nine points up with nine minutes left, but our boys just went for it.
“The Seán Treacy’s one… I think we were fortunate to get through that one. They battled hard and closed us down all over the field but, again, our boys kept fighting away and Gary McMullen pulled off a couple of good saves – he has pulled us out of the fire on a number of occasions. We have Daniel McCusker in there as well and Ryan Burns – they’re all fighting hard for the ball and they don’t give up.
“We had the rub of the green against Seán Treacy’s, but I think we deserved it, we just about shaded it.”
Shading it again on Sunday would do nicely. Would the last man, woman or child leaving Ballela please turn out the lights?
