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O’Dempsey’s take full advantage of slippages

WITH all of the teams in the relegation battle drawing, both O’Dempsey’s and Ballylinan knew that victory in Ballybrittas on Sunday evening would give their respective chances of staying in division one a real boost.
O'Dempsey's 2-18
Ballylinan 1-07

But it was the home side that took full advantage of the slippages by their relegation rivals with an emphatic 14 point victory over Ballylinan in a result that lifts them two points clear of trouble while leaving their opponents right in the thick of it, just one point ahead of The Heath with three games remaining.

The Killenard outfit made the best possible start with a goal virtually straight from the throw in.

Liam Finlay picked out the run of Stephen O’Leary and he smashed the ball into the top right hand corner of the net.

The home side completed their fine start with points from Darren Finlay and Michael Finlay before Gary Walsh got Ballylinan’s side of the scoreboard ticking with a free.

Michael Finlay and Ciarán Farrell traded points before O’Dempsey’s went into the complete ascendancy and stretched into a nine point lead with points from Barry Kelly (2), Liam Finlay, Stephen O’Leary and Michael Finlay.

But just as O’Dempsey’s looked to be pulling away from Ballylinan, the away side hit back incredibly in the final ten minutes of the half to cut the deficit to a solitary point.

Gary Walsh (3) and Jamie Farrell (2) set the ball rolling before they got their only goal of the game when brothers, Aidan and Gary Walsh combined with the latter finding the bottom corner of the net, leaving Pauric Bannon rooted to the spot.

However, O’Dempsey’s had another gear in them before the half time whistle with points coming from the left boots of Stephen O’Leary (2) and Michael Finlay to leave the half time score at 1-10 to 1-6.

But as close as the first half was, the second half couldn’t have been more different with the home side outscoring their opponents by 1-8 to 0-1.

They proved that lightening can strike twice when Ed Kelly got their second goal after Darren Finlay had fielded the throw in.

Jamie Farrell got Ballylinan’s only point of the half coming with just one minute of the game remaining and by that time, thanks to Michael Finlay (3), Stephen O’Leary (2), Barry Kelly, Brian Nugent and Seán McCormack, the game was well and truly over.