CCFL Review

BALLYMACKEY

By John Delaney

CCFL Women’s Division: Tullamore Town 0–8 Ballymackey

Ballymackey made a winning start to their CCFL campaign with an 8–0 victory over Tullamore Town under the lights at Leah Victoria Park on Saturday evening.

The Ballinree side travelled with a youthful squad, with six starters from their last competitive outing in July unavailable. Their absence provided an opportunity for a number of Ballymackey’s emerging underage players to make the step up to senior football. Ava O’Rourke made her first competitive senior start in goal, while Anna Lee, Olivia Fitzpatrick and Molly O’Brien all made their senior debuts for the club.

Ballymackey settled and took the lead after fifteen minutes through the experienced Joanne O’Brien. Lily Kate Kenneally then added two goals in the space of twelve minutes, finding the net in the 26th & 38th minutes to send Ballymackey into the interval with a 3–0 advantage.

The visitors continued to create opportunities after the restart, with Joanne O’Brien adding her second goal in the 49th minute. Debutant Olivia Fitzpatrick made it 5–0 four minutes later, winning a penalty before stepping up to convert from the spot and open her senior account. O’Brien completed her hat-trick in the 56th minute before the club’s younger players added two further goals in the closing stages.

Isabella Meehan grabbed her first senior goal in the 66th minute before fellow youngster Anna Lee completed the scoring eight minutes from time, marking her senior debut with Ballymackey’s eighth goal of the evening.

The result was a positive start to the new league campaign, but perhaps the most encouraging aspect for Ballymackey was the contribution of the club’s younger players. Fitzpatrick and Lee both scored on their senior debuts, Meehan registered her first senior goal and Kenneally continued her progress at senior level with a brace.

All of Ballymackey’s senior debutants as well as fellow Underage stars Meehen and Kenneally turned in excellent performances, with the youngest of the group, Molly O’Brien, shading the player of the match with a display of poise and composure beyond her years on what was a good night for the club’s developing players.

With a number of established players still to return, Ballymackey will be pleased to have started their CCFL Women’s Division campaign with three points while also giving valuable senior experience to several of their younger players.

Ballymackey FC: Ava O’Rourke, Olivia Fitzpatrick, Molly O’Brien, Isabella Meehan, Nicole Ryan, Chloe Whyte, Stephanie O’Sullivan, Kate Cavanagh (capt), Shauna Egan, Anna Lee, LilyKate Kenneally, Joanne O’Brien.

KILLAVILLA UNITED

By Gary Culbert

CCFL Premier Division: Mullingar Celtic 4-0 Killavilla United

On Friday night, Killavilla United 'A' made the journey north to take on Mullingar Athletic under the lights in round 3 of the CCFL Premier Division.

The last time the sides met was March in the FAI Junior Cup, a game which saw the Tipp outfit bow out following a one-goal defeat. On this occasion however, the home side punished every Villa mistake with ruthless efficiency, as last year's bottom placed side in the Senior Division racked up four unanswered goals against the newly promoted side.

A surprisingly small crowd braved the wet conditions at the exceptional grounds of Mullingar Athletic, where the big takeaway following Villa's first away-day since returning to the top table of midlands soccer is that they are not going to get anything too easily from referees, with a prime example being the certain penalty that fell on deaf ears when Ben Lynch was brought down in the area midway through the second half.

Once the ball had gone up the other end of the field, the guilty defender remarked to Lynch that he had gotten away with one there, however, that was not much use to Villa.

With Mullingar Athletic often losing players to Leinster Senior League teams, this was always going to be a difficult assignment for Killavilla. Indeed, the opening goal came after just eight minutes when a misplaced pass out of defence saw Mullingar score on the counter using only three passes to capitalise on the error.

The score remained that way until the 70th minute when the referee made a huge error to allow an offside goal for Mullingar, but again, it came from a wayward pass out of defence.

The high press from the hosts meant that the Tipp side were unable to play up through the thirds with the ease that they enjoyed in recent years. While goalkeeper Aaron Mulready kept the score down throughout the second half with his usual high performance levels, Mullingar did net twice more in the final fifteen minutes to put some gloss on the result.

With players yet to return, Killavilla won't be hitting the panic button just yet, but it does already appear that they will have to squeeze every bit of value they can from home games, as long away drives could make for difficult away games.

Next up is another away tie against Clonaslee United, who finished second from bottom last season. Kick-off at the Clonaslee Community Centre is 11.00am on Sunday.

Killavilla team v Mullingar Athletic: Aaron Mulready; Dylan Carroll, Roddy Teehan, Ian Treacy, Eddie Simmons; Darren Coleman, Tom Ahern; Kevin Fitzgerald; Ben Lynch, Johnny Corboy, Miko Pasalic. Subs: Jack Walsh for Corboy (65); Evan Conway for Ahern (70); Luke Fitzgerald for Simmons (80); Sean McLoughney for Miko Pasalic (80).

Killavilla United ‘B’: started their league campaign with a 2-2 draw at home to Gracefield despite leading two-nil with ten minutes to go.