Sunday 23rd Milebush Park, Castlebar.

Was this Ballinasloe Town AFC's Greatest ever day?

Ballinasloe has a new group of heros.  Ballinasloe Town had already made history by reaching their first ever Connacht Junior Cup Final on Sunday against Manula in Castlebar and even though Manula were at practically at home, they made even more history by winning the cup.  Ballinasloe are the 1^st team from the Roscommon and District league to win this competition in the 75 years of the competition.  When Ballinasloe took to the field they were cheered on by the hundreds of supporters who made the long trip to Milebush Park, the fans out cheered their hosts and lifted the team from start to finish.

Ballinasloe started the game the brighter of the sides playing some lovely passing football, it seemed Manula would be out passed.  15 minutes into the games and Manula had just settled, they were prone to the long ball and didnt look like hurting Ballinasloe, when out of nowhere a wind assisted speculative shot from well outside the box crashed against the Ballinasloe crossbar.  This spurred Manula into life and they came more ands more into the game.  Ballinasloe were still playing great football and creating half chances and this is all it took for them to take the lead.  Jason Twohig had no right to get his head to a cross in front of the Manula goalkeeper, but bravery got him there and Ballinasloe had the lead on 43 minutes.

Ballinasloe had a great start to the second half when after on 7 minutes Vinny Doherty latched onto a great through ball, held off the defender and blasted past the advancing keeper.  Ballinasloe were in dreamland and you could only see one winner in this game.  Credit to manual they proved why they deserved to be in this final, from a team that was 2 down they changed their formation and they were a different side.  Ballinasloe had dropped back a little deeper and Manula charged forward.  On 65 minutes after great pressure Manula pulled one back, with a sweet strike from the edge of the box and the game was on a knife edge.  The 25 minutes plus the 8 minutes of extra time seemed like an eternity to the Ballinasloe supporters, Manual were coming forward in waves and only some outstanding defending and determination saw them through.  Ballinasloe Captain, Kevin Flanagan, finally lifted the cup after what was surely the longest game of his life and the celebrations started.  Lets hope they finish before Ballinasloe play in their Divisonal Cup final against Skyvalley on Saturday evening at 6 pm in the Curragh.