Causeway V Ballyheigue - County Championship Quarter Final

County Championship Quarter Final
11/08/06	Causeway	1-07	V	Ballyheigue	0-09

AFTER a game that was about to be chucked into those labelled totally forgettable, but somehow Causeway managed to dig deep.

And thanks to their very own Houdini, John Mike Dooley, they scored a late goal that shattered the ambitions of a wasteful Ballyheigue side, in this very poor quarter-final played on Friday night at the Austin Stack Park, Tralee.

Causeway looked down and out as they trailed 0-9 to 0-7 with just two minutes of this very moderate contest remaining. Then came the Dooley Houdini act in the 58th minute after he had hauled down going through by Michael Lucid who was yellow carded for his troubles.

Regular free taker, Tadgh Flynn handed to ball to Causeway’s top gun and Dooley blasted the ball to the Ballyheigue net, to claim a dramatic win.

It was hard for Ballyheigue to take as they had dominated for long periods of the second half but a wide count of 10 in the second period more or less sums up the reason why they made their championship exit, when fancied to advance.

Ballyheigue just could not get going in the first half against the wind and failed to score for the opening 22 minutes but did finish the half strongly.

Causeway dominated play early on with the Fitzgerald brothers John and Eamon along with Kenneth Leahy to the fore but they found scoring difficult despite some fine off the ball running by Stephen Goggin.

Cormac Flynn opened their account from play before his brother Tadgh added two frees as Causeway struggled to get decent ball to their target man John Mike Dooley who was playing with damaged fingers.

Mike Boxer Slattery who failed to land a punch all evening in a scoring sense, opened Ballyheigue’s account in the 23rd minute and further points from Brendan O’Sullivan and Ned Flahive, saw Ballyheigue level matters.

Then in a eight minute injury spell both sides swapped two points as the sides retired on 0-5 apiece after a dreadful opening period.

If the first half was bad the second was even worse as Ballyheigue shot a series of wides and only one point by Brendan O’Sullivan from play to show for 18 minutes of dominance while Causeway failed to score at all.

Two frees from Slattery were matched by points from Flynn and super sub Cyril Dineen as Ballyheigue clung on to a two point lead.

But then Causeway rallied with the Fitzgerald’s and Jerry Canty driving them forward, and it was left to John Mike Dooley’s late intervention to win the game. .

Causeway: Kieran Canty, Fergus O Carroll, Kenneth Leahy, Maurice O Carroll, John Fitzgerald, Eamon Fitzgerald, Shane Sheehan, Gerry Canty, Shane Harty (0-1), Mark Dillane, Cormac Flynn (0-1), Stephen Goggin, John Mike Dooley (1-0f), John Joe Canty, Tadhg Flynn (0-4f).

Subs: Cyril Dineen (0-1) for Cormac Flynn, Johnny Dillane for Kenneth Leahy, Conor Harty for Stephen Goggin, David Leahy, Daniel O Connor, Michael Diggins, Shane Leahy,Paul O Grady, Padraig Harty, Kieran Leahy, John Whelan, Padraig Monson.

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