Ballyskenagh suffered their first defeat of the championship at the hands of Shamrocks in Rath on Sunday evening. Shamrocks started the game with all guns blazing and Ballyskenagh disappointingly failed to rise to the challenge.
Midway through the first half Shamrocks lead by 1-3 to 0-3 and they lead by 2-5 to 0-5 at the half time break.
In the second half, Ballyskenagh's peformance still fell short of the fiery challenge presented by Shamrocks, who were 8 points up midway through the half at 2-9 to 0-7. Shamrocks were ahead by 6 points when an injury time goal from Brendan Murphy put just three between the teams at 2-12 to 1-12, but Shamrocks went straight back up the field and banged in another one. Aidan Franks added one final point to leave the final scoreline at 1-13 to 3-12.
This result means that 'Skenagh finish joint top of the group with Kilcormac/Killoughey and must now wait to see whether our quarter final opponents will be St. Rynaghs or Tullamore, but we will have to improve a hundredfold from this performance if there is to be any hope of advancing to the semi-finals.
Team and Scorers: Alan Franks; Brendan Franks, Eoin Maher, Alan Middleton;
Aidan Franks (0-1), Mick O'Hara (0-2 frees), Barry Keeshan; David Franks (0-3,
0-2 free), Vinny Franks (0-1); Tadgh Maher (0-1), John Dooley (0-2 frees),
Noel Murphy (0-2); Derek Middleton, Brendan Murphy (1-0), Eoghan Franks (0-1)
Subs: Bill Lalor for Tadhg Maher, Eugene Kirwan for Brendan Franks, Mark Kirwan
for Derek Middleton.
Ref. Brendan Keeshan