REPORT/PHOTOS: Lixnaw Looking Good As They Take Ballyheigue Apart

Mike O’Halloran watched Lixnaw demolish Ballyheigue in the Garveys Supervalu Kerry SHC Round 1 tie in Austin Stack Park on Friday night…

Lixnaw 1-26

Ballyheigue 1-8

Darragh Shanahan is chased by Francis Flaherty. Photo by Dermot Crean

In my preview of this this game I expressed concern that Ballyheigue might struggle against a very slick Lixnaw outfit and so they did.

Ballyheigue were never in contention in this game. It took them nearly ten minutes to get the ball beyond the Lixnaw 45 metre line.

They only managed to score two points in the first half, meanwhile Lixnaw eased over 18 points from every angle and distance from forwards, backs and midfielders, both from play and placed balls.

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Sixteen of their points were from play with Michael Conway tapping over two frees, eight other Lixnaw players were on the score sheet including wing back Conor O’Keefe and centre back John Griffin.

Both midfielders John Buckley and Jeremy McKenna split the posts and five of their forwards pointed during the first half, Colin Sheehy made it a clean sweep of scoring forwards when he pointed six minutes into the second half.

Ballyheigue offered little resistance in the first half apart from hard work by Jason Casey and Conor Galway who both tried very hard up front. Philip Lucid had a chance to put Ballyheigue on the scoreboard but was wide with a free early on.

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John Griffin about to tackle Conor Galway. Photo by Dermot Crean

John Mike Pierce came to the rescue of Ballyheigue with a great save from John Griffin on eight minutes.

The halftime score read Lixnaw 18 points Ballyheigue 2 points, both points coming from frees by Philip Lucid.

With the game over as a contest, Lixnaw took their foot off the gas for the second half and allowed Ballyheigue into the game for a bit.

Adrian Flahive about to let fly. Photo by Dermot Crean

Ballyheigue managed one goal and six points in the second half, the goal coming from a free by Philip Lucid.

Diarmuid Walsh had a point on 35 minutes Colin Sheehy replied to that and 14 minutes later, Jason Wallace struck for the inevitable Lixnaw goal when he was picked out by Michael Conway with a pin point pass to drive the ball past Pierce.

To compound Ballyheigue’s woes, they also had a penalty saved by Martin Stackpoole.

Liam Collins comes out of defence with Francis Flaherty in chase. Photo by Dermot Crean

I was talking to the great John Hennessey prior to the game while we watched the Lixnaw warm up. John was really impressed with the first touch of all the Lixnaw players, that first touch was evident all through the game and the range of skills on show from Lixnaw was very impressive.

The manner in which Mark Foley has this team drilled is a sight to behold with every player aware of his role. A most impressive display by a team that look like champions.

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Lixnaw

Martin Stackpoole, Darragh Shanahan, Pat Corridon, Jonathan Silles, Conor O’Keefe (0.01) John Griffin (0.02) Stephen Power, John Buckley Cpt (0.01) Jeremy McKenna (0.01) Shane Conway (0.09) Ricky Heffernan (0.01) Liam Mullins (0.01) Jason Wallace (1.03) Michael Conway (0.06) Colin Sheehy (0.01)

Ballyheigue

John Mike Pierce, Danny Casey, Damien Casey, Mark Dineen Cpt, Jason Griffin, Colin Mahony, Chris Mahony, Tommy O’Connor, Diarmuid Walsh (0.01)Philip Lucid (1.07) Conor Galway, Richard O’Mahony, Jason Casey, Francis Flaherty.