Curraha welcomed Ballinabrackey to Joe McDermott Park on Sunday morning for the last game in Group C of the Feis Cup. The visitors got off to a flyer as with the assistance of a strong wind, they raced into 1-6 to no score lead after just 10 minutes. Curraha were struggling to deal with the direct football of the visitors, but gradually managed to gain a foothold in the game and work their way into proceedings. Their first score arrived after 15 minutes, when an excellent long ball by James McEntee from a free was gathered by Conor Moriarty, who beat his man and fired emphatically to the back of the net. McEntee followed up almost immediately with a point from a very tight angle out on the left after some great work by Sean Ronan. Ballinabrackey continued to take advantage of the conditions and tagged on another 3 points before the break, with Moriarty firing over a free for the Ha as half-time drew near. The visitors led by a scoreline of 1-9 to 1-2 at the break.

The 2nd half produced a much stronger display from Curraha and they began to reel in the scoreline as the game wore on. Niall Murphy, Neil Shortall, Brian and Conor Joyce were winning plenty of ball around the middle, and Conor Moriarty was causing serious damage with every ball played in. McEntee knocked over 2 excellent frees, Moriarty added another in the 10th minutes, and then scored another after claiming an excellent mark from a ball in from Gavin Coyle.

The hosts were right back in the game in the 20th minute. Niall Murphy played a great ball inside to Moriarty, who skinned his man again and played the ball across goal to find the support run from Conor Joyce to finish off a superb team goal. Curraha were dominant at this point, and having won the kick out, worked the ball to Gavin Coyle to register another point. Moriarty was on the scoreboard again a minute later, gathering a ball from Murphy, handpassing over the defenders head before gathering again and popping it over the bar. He added his 5th point of the game in the 25th minute.

However, disaster was to strike soon after. With Curraha dominating the ball and pushing for a score, Ballinabrackey turned the ball over and quickly broke up the field to score their 2nd goal of the day, and push them back into the lead. Curraha worked hard to try and create an opening for a goal of their own, but the opposition defence was determined not to let them in. They broke up field again for a furher point in injury time, with McEntee responding with a pointed free.

This was a very entertaining high-scoring tie, with some great scores and big hits. Credit to both sides for the quality on show in difficult conditions. Curraha were very unlucky to come out on the losing side after a brilliant 2nd half display, but there were plenty of encouraging signs in this performance ahead of the start of league in 2 weeks time.

Full Time: Curraha 2-10 Ballinabrackey 2-13

Curraha: Liam Hogan, Ian Battersby, Matthew Webb, Seamus Hogan, Conor Joyce (1-0), Neil Shortall, Sean Ronan, Niall Murphy, Brian Joyce, Gavin Coyle (0-1), Conor Moriarty (1-5), Ruairí O'Sullivan, Ben Heagney, Andrew Coyle, James McEntee (0-4)

Subs: Mark Jackson for Ben Heagney

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