Danske Bank O'Doherty Cup semi-final: Wednesday January 30 at 11.15am in Garvaghey: Moville CC v Ballybay CC
IN their quarter-final games a fortnight ago, goals were a key issue for both Moville and Ballybay.
Ballybay scored three at just the right time to see off Dean Maguirc College, Carrickmore by 3-8 to 0-13, while Moville shipped five in the first half but still recovered to beat Magh Ene College, Bundoran by 3-14 to 5-6.
It is still hard for coach Barry Molloy to work out how Moville were so open at the back, but once Rhys Hoy and the rest of the defenders got their act together there was no way through for Bundoran.
A key element in the victory was the form of Josh Conlon, who fired home the two goals before half time that put his team right back in the game and, along with Kevin Doherty he was difficult enough to curtail.
Ballybay are the surprise-packets of the competition in that they didn’t do well in the qualification group and had a play-off with St Claire’s Ballyjamesduff to get through to the quarter-finals.
Then against Carrickmore they were outplayed during the first half and still went in at the break 2-4 to 0-9 ahead with goals from Eoin Duffy and Dara Dempsey.
With Joel Wilson hitting the net on the re-start, they were on their way to victory and Duffy at centre-half back marshalled well his defence to hold off Carrickmore.
Aaron Mulligan has been Ballybay’s top-scorer, but Julius Sniauksta has been hitting the target on a regular basis, although he didn’t score at all against Carrickmore.
More questions were asked of Moville in their quarter-final and they answered them well to make it through. Ballybay took their goal chances and were then able to set themselves up defensively to see out the victory.
Moville look the better bet for a place in the final.
