Ulster Club JHC final Eoghan Rua 3-15 Ballella 0-07
EOGHAN Rua, Coleraine created a little bit of history yesterday at Owenbeg when they defeated Down side Ballela in the Ulster junior hurling final to become the first Derry club to win a provincial hurling title.
Even though the Bannsiders were rather wasteful in the first half and spurned a number of clear-cut goal chances, they still proved far too strong for the Mourne side.
With Sean Leo McGoldrick dropping deep to sweep up when Ballela did get into the Eoghan Rua half, and the youthful pairing of Ruairi Leonard and Ruairi Mooney dominant at midfield despite the best efforts of Johnny McCusker, the Eoghan Rua attack scored freely over the hour.
Colm McGoldrick terrorised the Ballela defence and drew a penalty in the fourth minute that Ciaran Gaile dispatched to the net to give Eoghan Rua a lead they held to the final whistle.
Indeed with wind advantage the Down side struggled to score and depended on McCusker for scores from frees, Malachy and Calvin Magee the only other players to score.
On 10 minutes the writing was truly on the wall for Ballela when Colm McGoldrick flicked the sliothar to the net from a Ciaran Gaile cross.
By half-time Eoghan Rua had a healthy 2-4 to 0-4 lead, McGoldrick adding a brace of points to his goal.
Manager Padraig Ó Mianain was delighted with his side’s display as his side overcame rustiness to win handsomely.
You have to factor in that we only started serious hurling training after the senior football championship season was over,” he said.
“With nine or ten dual players you could not get them out as they were getting ready for the next football game. We’re only really training the last two weeks. But we have done a lot of work in recent days to try and get our sharpness and stick work up to scratch.
“And today we were closer to where we want to be. We played very well here last year against Carrickmore and the year before against Creggan and they are playing after us in the intermediate final.
“And we said before the game that we needed to get up to that level.
“We managed to achieve that in the first half even though we missed a number of scoring chances. We still had a six-point advantage at half-time.
“We then got a good start to the second half when we scored 1-4 without reply inside four minutes and that ended it as a contest really.”
Within a minute of the restart Derry minor star Thomas Magee took a pass from Colm McGoldrick and lashed the sliothar to the net.
McGoldrick, Ciaran Gaile, Leonard and Gaile again scored to extend the lead to 3-10 to 0-5.
McGoldrick shone throughout, and his contribution didn’t surprise Ó Mianain.
“Colm is a great hurler. It’s great for him to come out on a big day like this and produce a starring performance. He was unmarkable,” he said.
“But we had others there today who stood up, all good hurlers who have been hurling for years. Now we have a bit of silverware and we look forward to playing the British champions in two weeks.”
When asked what it means to the club he responded: “It’s been hard to keep it going. Numbers are small in the club but this will be a great boost to the club from underage up.
“A lot of that team is our first generation but in the next couple of years the profile will start dipping the wrong side of 30, so it was important for us to lay down a marker and inspire the young players.
“We need to have players coming through at minor and U21 level to play with the county and build up the numbers.”
In the final minutes Gaile pointed three frees before captain Anton Rafferty drew a raucous response when he held the cup on high and said simply ‘finally’.
Eoghan Rua: P Mullan; P Dallas, L McGoldrick, C Boyle; C Lagan, B McGoldrick, A Rafferty; R Mooney (0-1), R Leonard (0-1); T Magee (1-0), C Gaile (1-8, 1-0 pen, 0-8 frees), SL McGoldrick; N Holly, Colm McGoldrick (1-4), Ciaran McGoldrick (0-1)
Subs: K Lagan for L McGoldrick (35),
G Rafferty for Holly(45), S Papachristopoulos for SL McGoldrick (55
Ballela: G McMullan; R Burns, D McCusker, D McCann; N Burns, G Burns, M Doyle; J McCusker (0-5, 0-4 frees), M Magee (0-1); C Magee (0-1), R McPolin, K Close; P Mackin, R McCusker, M Cosgrave
Subs: D Doran for Mackin (35), S McCusker for Doyle (35), A Faulkner for R McCusker (52), J McParland for Cosgrave
Referee: Colum Cunning (Antrim)
