Ballon progress in Leinster after extraordinary late comeback
Shane Duffy's injury time goal gave Ballon a lifeline, before an even later one from Alex Kelliher sealed the a dramatic win
Two goals in injury time saw Ballon overcome the Wexford champions in this Leinster Intermediate Football Championship first round game at Netwatch Cullen Park on Friday.
The first half was keenly contested with play ebbing and flowing. Within a minute, Zak Hernan nudged the visitors into the lead when punching over the bar. From a standing position inside the arc Brian Maher found an equaliser for Ballon.
As the game unwound, the home side had points from Alex Kelliher, Rory McCaffrey and Evan Corr while the Wexford intermediate champions hit back through Hernan and Paddy Whitty with both raising three white flags each.
Ballon scored the only goal of the half on 20 minutes when Shane Duffy off-loaded to Brian Maher and he rifled the ball to the net.
Cloughbawn were then awarded a penalty but Andrew O’Brien dived to his right to save from Bob Whitty. At the break the home side led 1-6 to 0-6.
They stretched their advantage when Brian Maher scored an opportunist goal on 34 minutes.
With a quarter of the game left Ballon led 2-10 to 0-8. Cloughbawn enjoyed a period in the ascendancy as Shane Kehoe scored their only goal but crucially they tacked on three two-pointers. In all they scored 1-8 without reply in less than ten minutes. Going into injury time they had all the momentum but an Alex Kelliher free opened an ever closing window for Ballon.
With the sixty minutes played, Shane Duffy latched onto a long delivery. He had only one thing on his mind when winding his way around the defence to score the equalising goal. A shell-shocked Wexford side were reeling as Ballon attacked once more. This time the Carlow representatives played the possession game as the seconds ticked towards the fourth and final minute of injury time.
This time Alex Kelliher knifed through and instead of taking his point his rocket found the bottom corner of the net. Cloughbawn had one last chance but when Ballon won the kick-out the final whistle came to herald an astonishing victory for the Carlow champions.
They will now travel to play Dublin champions Naomh Olaf in the quarter-final on 14 November.
B Maher 2-2 (1f), A Kelliher 1-4 (1f), S Duffy 1-1, C Kelliher 0-2, R McCaffrey E Corr 0-1 each.
Z Hernan 0-6 (4fs), P Whitty 0-4, Cathal Kehoe 0-3 (1-2p), S Kehoe 1-2 (1-2p), Colm Kehoe 0-2.
Andrew O’Brien; Josh Fernandez, Lorcan Doyle, Dan O’Connor; Martin Carroll, Conor Kelly, Rory McCaffrey; Jimmie Carroll, Corey Kelliher; Callum Crawford, Evan Corr, Fionn McCaffrey; Brian Maher, Shane Duffy, Alex Kelliher.
Subs: Donncha Murphy for M Carroll (25m temporary), Edward O’Byrne for C Kelliher (45), Darren Geraghty for J Carroll (53), Donncha Murphy for Fernandez (59).
James Flood; Nathan McDonald, Darragh Kehoe, Gary Kennedy; David Doyle Murphy, James Dempsey, Liam Flood; Cathal Kehoe, Paidi Cullen; Paddy Whitty, Colm Kehoe, Shane Kehoe; Bob Whitty, Shayne McDonald, Zak Hernan.
Subs: Barry Sweetman for D Kehoe (29), Kyle Murphy for Doyle Murphy (50), Gareth Murphy for Kennedy (58).
Darragh Byrne (Wicklow)
