Ballinabrackey made the long, arduous journey to North Meath to face Carnaross and returned with both points in the bag.

Carnaross 1-10 Ballinabrackey 1-16

A League (Division 2)
Played in Carnaross – 24/4/2019

Both teams failed to garner any points in the opening two rounds of championship and therefore were desperate to turn their fortunes around. In the end it was the men from south Meath who emerged victorious after leading for the majority of the contest.

The Bracks raced into an early lead before Decky Reilly opened his account. While Ballinabrackey continued to convert from play and from frees, Carnaross struck the first goal of the game when Frank O’Reilly reacted quickest to a delivery into the square and forced the goalkeeper into fumbling it into the net.

Carnaross had been defending well forcing Ballinabrackey into pot shots that weren’t landing. Full forward Trevor Bannon had an opportunity to goal but McNiffe was equal to it. Unfortunately minutes later, the ball was in the back of the net when an innocuous side line ball by Tomas Plunkett evaded McNiffe in the goals and was adjudged to have crossed the line.

Carnaross responded well scoring the final two points before half time with a 45 from O’Reilly and a free from Decky, leaving them 2 points down at the turn of ends.
The second half lacked the same intensity as the first due to frees being constantly awarded for both sides. Ballinabrackey’s Chris O’Connor was immense on free kick duties and only missed one effort throughout the 60minutes.

Carnaross struggled to gain possession due to the Bracks monopolisation of the ball doubled with their ability to hold possession. Counter attacks yielded some results in the form of 3 Decky Reilly frees but we struggled to gain any real momentum due to the stop-start nature of proceedings.

The Bracks pushed up on the Carnaross rear-guard and in the slippy underfoot conditions, it reaped rewards as they kept the scoreboard ticking over. They tried to kill off proceedings with a second goal with Damien Carroll attempting an audacious lob from 40 metres but McNiffe put it out for a 45.

With minutes remaining, Carnaross tried in vain to launch ball into the square searching for a major to quickly reduce the deficit. The goal never arrived due to resolute defending but this is where 3 points came from, in the form of the likely duo, Frank O’Reilly and JohnL McGee and the unlikely scorer, Peter Carpenter. In the end Ballinabrackey ran out deserving 6 point winners, as they superior ability to maintain possession proved the difference.

Carnaross: Shane McNiffe, Jack Roche, Tomás Plunkett, Ian Donoghue, Peter Carpenter (0-1), Frank O’Reilly (1-2), Stephen Flattery, Dermot McGee, Pierce Fleming, Luke Gillic, Niall McDonnell, Paddy McDermott, Decky Reilly (0-6), John L McGee (0-1), Killian Porter. Subs: Liam Day for Gillic, Stephen Dawson for McDermott, Cormac Yore for Porter, Shane Casserly for Stephen Flattery.