Published: Wednesday, 6th May, 2009 1:03pm

Tierney inspires Ballyhaise to glory

Ballyhaise 2-9

St Joseph's 0-5

Paul Fitzpatrick

at O"Connell Park

An impressive Ballyhaise side, lead by superb centre-forward Kevin Tierney, proved too strong for St Joseph"s in a rain-sodden O"Connell Park, Milltown last Monday afternoon.

The Killeshandra-Arva amalgamation will rue 16 wides over the hour, 13 of which came in the first half, as Ballyhaise made better use of their possession and adapted much more efficiently to the blustery conditions.

The excellent Tierney opened the scoring just moments into the game with a neat right-footed point from the right wing, but it was St Joe"s who went on to dominate the opening quarter.

In tough conditions, Ballyhaise struggled to move the ball past their own half -back line at times but their opponents failed to capitalise on their territorial advantage and recorded a succession of wides.

Eventually in the 13th minute Kevin Bouchier laid off to the onrushing Shane O"Reilly - who had an excellent first half - and the latter slotted over on the run.

Ballyhaise had a rare foray upfield when Christopher Reilly had a a shot at goal blocked and from the subsequent attack, Ballyhaise keeper Steven Colwell intercepted smartly a Bouchier cross-square pass to Cian Sweeney.

The game threatened to spill over at this stage as referee MG Brady struggled to keep the match under control. The Mullahoran official yellow-carded Aidan Moran and James Morris after one unseemly incident in the 21st minute.

A free from Tierney, who was operating deeper now, put one between the sides before Ballyhaise landed a huge break when a Shane McKiernan free from the ground, which had been brought forward by the referee, dipped at the last second and curled into the top corner of the St Joseph"s net.

Good work by John McCabe set up the lively Neil Rooney for a point to put five between the teams at the break, 1-3 to 0-1, with St Joseph"s facing a tough task having played with a strong breeze in the opening 30 minutes.

The amalgamation introduced the highly-rated Paddy King, who didn"t start due to illness, at half-time.

However, straight from the throw-in, Kevin Tierney cur through the centre and fired over a rousing point to leave six in it.

Kevin Bouchier replied with a super point at the other end, doing well to float the ball over the bar in the swirling wind.

With their tails up, St Joe"s pushed forward and were rewarded with another point from Brian Ellis following a sweeping move involving King, Sweeney and Bouchier.

A harsh-looking free against a St Joseph"s defender was fired over by Tierney in the 40th minute but when the same player struck the crossbar with a similar free a minute later, Joe"s raced upfield and Bouchier set up Ellis for a neat point.

With five in it, it was still anybody"s game but Tierney couldn"t miss by this stage and he casually drove over a sublime point from 35 metres to make it 1-7 to 0-4.

Bouchier replied with a well-struck free with ten minutes on the clock but Rooney cancelled this out with a lovely score at the other end seconds later.

Another stylish point by Kevin Tierney made it 1-9 to 0-5 with seven minutes to go before the coup de grace arrived for Ballyhaise.

A swift counter-attack saw Ellis feed substitute Owen McGovern, who kept a cool head to finish to the net soccer-style and wrap up the result.

The match ended on a sour note for St Joseph"s when midfielder David Doherty was dismissed in the dying seconds.

BALLYHAISE: Steven Colwell, Paul Dunne, Aidan Moran, Donal McGoldrick, Shane McKiernan (1-0f), Francis Moore, Niall Conaty, Shane Shortall, Adam Boyle (0-1), Christopher Reilly, Kevin Tierney (0-6, 2f), John McCabe, Neil Rooney (0-2), Diarmuid Conaty, Cian Tierney

SUBS: Francis McConnell, Ryan Brennan, Owen McGovern

ST JOSEPH"S: Damien McCaul, Conor McEntee, Finbar Rudden, Ciaran Brady, Joe Masterson, Shane O"Reilly (0-1), James Morris, Fergal McGlade, David Doherty, Cian Sheridan, Kevin Bouchier (0-2, 1f), Jonathan McCabe, Brian Ellis (0-2), Peter Morris, Cian Sweeney

SUBS: Patrick King, Conor Higgins