Baltinglass 1-13 Tinahely 1-9
Despite being reduced to 14-men for the last 10 minutes Baltinglass still chalked up their 23rd Wicklow senior football title on Sunday when they carved out a four-point victory over Tinahely in a keenly contested final at Aughrim.
John Murray received a straight red card in the 50th minute but Tinahely were still not able to capitalise as Baltinglass closed up shop and allowed no openings to their opponents. At times they had 13 players behind the ball, and their halfback line of Patrick Burke, Billy Cullen and Tom Burke was superb.
At the time the score stood at 1-13 to 1-9 and so it stayed to the final whistle, with Tinahely unable to find any chink in the Baltinglass armour.
Patrick Burke scored the Baltinglass goal just on the stroke of half time, finishing off a five-man move, and it was the perfect antidote to Alan Dillon’s brilliant goal for Tinahely earlier.
Dillon had edged Tinahely 1-2 to 0-4 ahead midway through the half, but Baltinglass always seemed to have the ability to strike back when needed to reclaim the lead.
The west Wicklow men led 1-7 to 1-5 at half time. After the restart John Murray answered Tinahely’s Cillian McDonald, John McGrath traded points with Eoin Darcy and so the exchanges see-sawed between the teams.
A fine brace for Baltinglass by full forward Adam McHugh was cancelled out by Rory Stokes and Willie Quaile, who fired between the posts immediately after being sprung from the bench in the 41st minutes.
Quile made his mark again for Tinahely, but Patrick Burke cancelled it out. Baltinglass were still ahead 1-12 to 1-9 into the final quarter. Baltinglass then closed down the game after they were reduced to 14 men with the dismissal of Murray.
BALTINGLASS: M Jackson (0-2 frees); J Murray (0-1), K Murphy, C Lee; P Burke (1-1), B Cullen, T Burke; M English, S Doody; S Heaslip, J Keogh (0-1, free); J Kennedy (0-1), D Kelly (0-1, free), A McHugh (0-4), J McGrath (0-2). Subs: J Deans for S Heaslip, P Burke for J Kennedy.
TINAHELY: A Nolan; C Hatton, M Byrne, N Mulhall; K Mulhall (0-1), S Hogan (0-1), B Hickey; W Dillon, B Walsh; R Stokes (0-2, frees), E Darcy (0-2), C McDonald (0-1); M Ging, A Dillon (1-1), P O'Rourke. Subs: J Hedderman for B Walsh, W Quaile (0-1) for K Mulhall, J Cush for M Ging, E Byrne for W Dillon. T Darcy for P O'Rourke.
Referee: G Whelan.
