Daire Sweeney of Ballyboden takes on the Tullamore defence on Saturday Photos by John Kirwan
Final countdown!
BALLYBODEN St Endas have reached the final of the AIB Leinster Senior Club Football where they will take on Athy in Croke Park this coming Saturday.
The fixture marks an extremely quick turnaround following a decisive win over Tullamore at Glensik O’Connor Park last Saturday afternoon.
Boden stamped their authority on the game in the first half of the match as they built up a significant lead by the interval.
A goal from Ross McGarry as well as a well taken penalty from Colm Basquel saw the scoreline read 2-12 to 0-04 in Boden’s favour by half time.
Ryan O’Dwyer, Ryan Basquel and Daire Sweeney continued to keep the scoreboard ticking over throughout the first half with Boden’s attack firing on all cylinders
With the breeze now in their favour for the second half, the home side produced a far more solid performance in the second half of the game, kicking six points on the bounce.
While they were far more impressive in possession they did not manage to convert this possession to meaningful scores and would be unable to close the gap that Boden had created from the first half of the game.
Daire Sweeney in particular would show his importance to the side in the second half of the match and would finish the match with a personal tally of 0-09 contributing to an overall scoreline of 2-19 to 0-10 in favour of Boden.
Manager Eamon O’Reilly spoke on the performance and how Boden managed to build up such an impressive scoreline.
“Listen we came down expecting a really tight battle. Sometimes games get away from teams and I think that’s what happened to them in the first half. A few things didnt go their way and we ended up capitalising. That third quarter is probably something for us to reflect on.”
“Different lads are stepping up the whole time. We’ve got leaders all over the pitch whether it’s a defensive player, transition player or inside forward, different players are showing what they are and that is leaders.”
O’Reilly also briefly touched on the upcoming final against Athy this weekend and the rapid turnaround following the match last Saturday.
Athy themselves reached the final following an eight point win against Portarlington.
The Kildare Champions stopped Naas from reaching five county championships in a row and then beat Baltinglass and Summerhill before stopping the Laois champions enroute to the final.
“It’s super quick, they have some quality footballers with real experience throughout the team. We know we are coming up against a hugely experienced and hungry team so we have to match that and more.”
