Result: 1-11 to 1-12

Intermediate Championship

Ballybodens first outing in the Intermediate Championship ended in a narrow and heartbreaking defeat at the hands of St Sylvesters in Malahide last Saturday evening.

Despite losing their influencial corner back Scott Cullen to a hamstring injury very early in the proceedings and full back Graham Heavey for a very harsh second yellow card early in the second half, the visitors battled back from a three point defect to lead by two with ten left on the clock. This was a truly heroic performance from the 14 man Boden side who carried the fight right to the death in a pulsating encounter.

Bodens woes started early as they shipped a goal after 4 minutes followed by a quick point to leave them 4 points adrift and in plenty of trouble. But Boden were not going to lie down. With Shovlin in top form on the 40, Boden began to find the range and whittled the home sides down to the minimum by half time. Up front Dunne was causing havoc and were it not for some very poor decision making in front of goal Boden could have been well ahead by the break.

After the break Boden got stuck in early and forced the play. Disaster struck when Heavy was dismissed by the Ref and forced Boden to rearrange their troops. In came Naoise Maguire to shore up the defence, with Eric Monaghan the one to loose out in the reshuffle. In fairness to the home side, they threw the proverbial kitchen sink at Boden to try and break them down. In games like this small things decide the outcome and in this case the referee who was having a poor game awarded three or four very dodgy decisions against the visitors. The big home side attendance was not being ignored. Two late frees of the very soft variety saw the home side overcome Boden at the death. There were no weak players on the Boden side. This may have been a loss on the scoreboard, but a victory for courage and commitment. Being a young and developing side these lads were getting their first run in a serious championship encounter and they all stood up manfully when called upon.

The future for this team is bright. Bring on the next round on Sunday week.

Squad: M McNamee, F McGuire, G Heavey, S Cullen, O Carolan, H Keller, T McGrath, L O’Donoghue, L Flaherty, C Bates (0-02), D Shovlin (0-02),  J Murphy (0-04), B McGarry (0-01) M Dunne (1-02)

Subs; N Hester for S Cullen 10 mins,  N Maguire for E Monaghan 54 mins,  D Walsh for L Flaherty 52 mins