Blake bags brilliant hat-trick in MFC 'B' Final
Newtown Gaels after receiving the Minor B Championship trophy Photo: Sean Brilly
A hat-trick of almost identical goals from the towering Liam Blake helped propel Newtown Gael to the Manguard Plus Minor Football B Championship in Manguard Park on Saturday afternoon.
Blake, wearing nine but playing at full-forward, used his height to flick high balls to the net in the 9th, 26th and 55th minutes, blows from which Balyna were unable to recover despite a strong second half performance.
Newtown Gaels, the Caragh/Robertstown combination, had 1-3 on the board within the opening ten minutes. Barry Kelly opened their account with a point in the opening minute and Josh Gannon added to that with a 30-metre free two minutes later.
Balyna suffered a blow with the loss of centre-back Kieran Ryan to a black card after three minutes before Blake plundered the first of those goals, Mick O’Toole providing the delivery on this occasion. Ross Kavanagh’s point immediately afterwards stretched the lead to six points.
It took Balyna twenty minutes to find their opening reply, Jimmy Lynch converting a 40 metre free and four minutes later Andrew Nicholson added to that.
Six minutes from the interval Joe Morrissey turned provider for Blake with another long delivery into the goalmouth and two minutes later Josh Gannon pointed from the edge of the ‘D’ to put Newtown Gaels eight points clear (2-4 to 0-2).
Clogherinkoe/Johnstownbridge combination Balyna needed to respond, and they did in the last few minutes of the half with two frees from Luke Ennis sandwiching one from play from Liam Dunne. That left five between them at the break.
Newtown Gaels re-established control with points from Oisín Hand and Oisín Bagnall immediately after the break before the increasingly influential Ennis hit back with two more frees.
The point of the game from Lynch after 41 minutes made it 2-6 to 0-8 and two minutes later the same player weaved his way into the box and forced a fine save from Luke Percival. Ennis calmly slotted the rebound to the top far corner of the net but referee Ryan Moran had already blown his whistle and following consultation with this umpires, awarded the penalty.
Ennis stepped up but Percival superbly pushed his shot onto the post before swooping it up on the goal line.
Bagnall added a free, to which Ennis replied with a fine point. That man Blake almost replicated his earlier tricks with another flicked effort that goalkeeper Ben O’Riordan saved. Blakes’s follow-up effort was blocked but Bagnall was on hand to pop over the point.
Five minutes from time it was effectively game over when Gannon’s high delivery hung in the air and the unmarkable Blake rose highest once more to divert it once more to the net.
Balyna did hit back with a well-taken consolation goal from their best player Ennis and after Lynch became their second man black-carded, Ryan rounded off the scoring when his goalbound effort was acrobatically tipped over the bar by Percival.
Luke Percival; Donnacha McCormack, Cillian Barr, Charlie Byrne; Oisín Dwane, Mick O’Toole, Oisín Hand 0-1; Billy Kelly (captain) 0-1, Ben Kehoe; Joe Morrissey, Josh Gannon 0-2 (1f), Ross Kavanagh 0-1; Oisín Bagnall 0-3 (1f), Liam Blake 3-0, Faolan Hayden. SUBS: Ryan Bagnall for Hayden 42, Jamie Hand for O Bagnall 57.
Ben O’Riordan; Brandon Murray, Jack McKeon, Corey McKeon; Conor O’Donoghue, Kieran Ryan 0-1, Shane Grimes; Andrew Hill, Darragh Carey; Ethan Tansey, Luke Ennis 1-5 (4fs), Andrew Nicholson 0-1; Jimmy Lynch 0-2 (1f), Rian Cully, Liam Dunne 0-1. SUBS: Shayne Boyle for Dunne 35, Seán Denehan for Tansey 53, Flynn Nolan for Cully 53, Gareth Davitt for O’Toole 60, Liam Colleran for Dwane 60+4.
Ryan Moran
