It was a quiet weekend for football with just the Minor A’s and D’s in action on Monday night. The A’s went down to Raheny at home by 3-12 to 1-09 (report below) and the D’s were on the end of a heavy defeat to Judes also at home.
We extend congratulations to Michael Darragh on another Leinster Championship Final win for the Dubs and wish the best of luck to Paul Durcan in the Ulster final against Monaghan next weekend.
This week coming is very busy with the Seniors playing Wednesday, the Junior B’s are in Championship action this Thursday and the weekend the Inters play Saturday and Junior A’s on Sunday.
This week at each of the Adult football games there will be a collection where all proceeds will be for the benefit of Jack Halpin, a member of the St. Judes club, who was seriously injured in the Berkeley tragedy. Please give what you can.
Ballyboden 1-09 Raheney 3-12
This might seem like a bit of a hammering for Boden last evening, but in fact the score line did not reflect Bodens efforts. Still short of a few players on holidays, the home side started well and were full value for their early lead and were the better side for most of the first half. Barry McGarry netted after a very clever pass from the industrious Johnny Murphy and Boden were easily the better team. Disaster struck with a serious injury to their outstanding full back Hugh Keller who had to leave the field with an arm injury after an accidental collision. Boden then shipped a very soft goal when there was a mix up in the goal mouth leaving the Raheny player to tap in to an empty net. To add insult to injury Boden went straight down the field, with McGee fielding the kick out and releasing Leddy whose inside pass was collected before blazing wide. A golden opportunity spurned. Half time came and Boden were three points behind after playing the better football and the visitors were clearly rattled.
The home side reduced the margin with two quick points and were going well. Boden then missed yet another goal opportunity and the visitors were clearly in trouble. But Raheny got their game together and knocked over two quick points before another mix up allowed them in for a goal. Boden in fairness responded well and moved the ball through the midfield and found Flaherty who was dragged down in the penalty area. The referee pointed to the spot and Boden had a well deserved lifeline. Unfortunately the penalty was well saved by the Raheny keeper and the chance was gone. Boden suffered another blow when Stafford received a straight red and Boden were reduced to 14. This allowed Raheny to pile on the pressure and they pushed on to get another goal and two points. Boden missed six goal chances in all, had their full back injured and were reduced to 14 for the last 15 minutes. With two or three lads clearly not fit having just returned from holidays the home side were always going to struggle in this game. But for 50 minutes they gave a top class Raheny side a good game.
Stand out players for the home side were Rob Leddy who had a man of the match performance, Mark McGee, Kevin Cronin who battled hard to the end, Johnny Murphy, Liam Flaherty and Hugh Keller who was having an excellent game before his injury.
*And a special word of thanks to Maeve Warren a former Ballyboden member who is now a resident in Raheny and whose son was playing for the visitors. She rendered great assistance to Hugh and correctly diagnosed his injury and took great care of him.