Sean Dolans see red at Celtic Park as Championship hopes ended by Ballerin

Sean Dolan’s 0-6

Ballerin 1-12

Sean Dolans lost their way spectacularly as this Junior Championship quarterfinal turned into a canter for Ballerin at Celtic Park.

The game was over at half time, with Ballerin 10 points and a man ahead, thanks to a blistering opening period, and a red card to Paul Melaugh just before the break.

Dolans did actually win the second period points-wise, but only because Ballerin were in first gear, knowing their job was done. And the city side just lost their heads completely regardless, with further red cards to Odhran McKane and then Gearoid McDermott as they ended the game, and their Championship with 12 men on the field.

It was the first 10 minutes of this game which ultimately decided the direction of this game. Dolans were blitzed in that short space of time, with Man of the Match Paul Ferris helping himself to 1-3 very quickly.

Realising things were not going their way, Dolans, rather than dig deep, instead lost their tempers and the yellow cards quickly followed, with a red card something of an inevitability. That the game ended with referee Thomas Devlin handing out three reds – each one for a second bookable offence, shows that the Creggan side had given up any kind of comeback long before the final whistle.

A key moment in the game did come just three minutes in, when Caolan McCosker raced through and slammed a great effort past goalkeeper John McGinley, but the ball hit the base of the post and stayed out with Conor McCloskey hooking the rebound wide. Had that gone in, maybe that would have changed the story for Dolans, and given them more belief, because any belief they did half at throw in, disappeared far too quickly in this one.  

Already a score down to a Kosta Papachristopolus free at that stage, Dolans face a three-point deficit when Ferris added two frees before Sean O’Donnell got the Creggan side off the mark seven minutes on.

It was all Ballerin however and Ferris from play, and then Shane McIntyre made it 0-1, 0-5 before the killer blow arrived on 10 minutes. The Dolans defence were caught sleeping spectacularly from a quickly taken mark and Ferris was left all alone to race through and hammer the ball past Ryan McCloskey and into the net. That gave Ferris 1-3 alone in the opening minutes, and it was on that that Ballerin went on to base their victory.

Mark Ferris stretched the lead and at the 20-minute mark the first signs of frustration began to appear for Dolans with Melaugh, McKane and McDermott all booked in a matter of minutes.

The Ballerin scores continued with Papachristopolus and Eugene Mullan stretching the lead before O’Donnell got Dolans first score in 21 minutes.

A bad first half then got even worse for Dolans with Melaugh sent off for a second caution and he had just left the field when the unplayable Ferris added another free to leave a chasm between the sides, in more ways than one, at the break.

Half Time 0-2, 1-9

Dolans at least showed some fight at the start of the second half, and McKane and O’Donnell both scored in response to a Sean Ferris score. But the signs were there and it was almost inevitable that McKane would follow Melaugh, slamming the ball in frustration in front of referee Devlin then kicking the ball against an opponent before he was eventually sent off on 46 minutes.

McDermott then followed him just two minutes later as Dolans received a third red card, just moments after O’Donnell had added what was now nothing more than a consolation score.

The game as a contest was long over, and Ballerin were just going through the motions, but Paul Ferris might have had a second goal to himself when he burst through and beat McCloskey with a rasping shot, but the ball flew just wide of the target.

Ferris did add two further scores before time ran out, while the Ballerin management made a number of changes this game working out better than expected, with the semi-final already in mind long before the end.

Dolans actually ended this game having won the second half on points thanks to a late Caolan McCosker free, but that will be of no significance at all, as they reflect on just what went wrong in this quarterfinal. That poor start was ultimately decisive, but their loss of discipline was alarming and their season ends prematurely because of that.

Ballerin head into the semi-finals, and if they can get brothers Gary and Pual Keane fit for the latter stages, they will fancy they have a real chance this year. They will certainly have tougher tests than this one anyway.

Teams and Scorers

SEAN DOLAN’S: Ryan McCloskey, 2 Ruairi Thompson, 3 Liam McNulty, 4 Ryan McLaughlin, 6 Rory McGurk, 7 Charlie Fletcher, 8 Sean O’Donnell (0-4, 1f), 9 Eamon McGinley, 12 Caolan McCosker (0-1, 1f), 14 Gearoid McDermott, 21 Caoimhin McChrystal, 22 Paul Melaugh, 25 Emmett Coyle, 27 Conor McCosker, 13 Odhran McKane (0-1, 1f).

Subs: Joe Gallagher for Liam McNulty HT, Kevin Nixon for Emmet Coyle 43’, Luke Clarke for Ruairi Thompson 43’, Liam McNulty for Ryan McLaughlin 46’

YELLOW: Paul Melaugh 14’, Odhran McKane 21’, Gearoid McDermott 22’, Caolan McCosker 32’,

BALLERIN: 1 John McGinley, 2 Mark Ferris (0-1), 3 Brian Deighan, 4 Hugh O’Connell, 5 Stephen Mullan, 6 Sean Ferris (0-1), 7 Shane Ferris, 8 Jarlaith Bradley, 9 Anton Bradley, 11 Paul Ferris (1-6, 5f), 12 Shane McIntyre (0-1), 13 Eugene Mullan (0-1), 14 Kosta Papachristopolus (0-2, 2f), 15 Bobby Mullan, 17 Callum Bradley.

Subs: Ryan Doherty for Jarlaith Bradley 47’, Dylan Mullan for Stephen Mullan 48’, Lee Ferris for Eugene Mullan 53’, Oran Canning for Callum Bradley 56’, Pearse McIntyre for Kosta Papachristopolus 57’, Simon McGinley for Bobby Mullan 58’.

Yellow: Jarlath Bradley 36’.

REFEREE: Thomas Devlin.