Mullagh 1-17 Pearses 0-8: It was a bad day at the office for Pearses in this Senior ‘A’ Relegation playoff played this evening in Duggan Park, Ballinasloe. Mullagh had the upper hand from the start against an out-of-sorts and understrength Pearses.
Mullagh opened an early three point lead, with Davy Glennon at full-forward, among the scorers. Pearses, minus the services of the injured Tomás and Fearghal Flannery, got off the mark on the 10th minute as Ronan Bellew pointed from play. By 20 minutes Mullagh had extended their lead, 0-7 to 0-3. Both sides were off target too in this period, with the wide count mounting. Mullagh had added another point by the 28th minute, when errors in the Pearses defence opened up a goal-scoring chance which Glennon finished into the roof of the net, 1-8 to 0-3. There were three more points to finish the half, two from Pearses. Half-time 1-9 to 0-5.
The rain arrived at half-time, not making the task of a recovery any easier. The first score of the second half didn’t arrive until eight minutes in, from Cyril Donnellan. The gap was down to six, but this was as close as Pearses would get. Mullagh outscored Pearses 0-8 to 0-2 in the remainder of the game, with Justin Gaynor at centre-forward finishing with 0-5 from play.
Pearses will compete in Senior ‘B’ for 2018, with the opportunity there to qualify for the preliminary quarter-finals against Senior ‘A’ opposition. At the start of this year the ‘Group of Death’ seemed a serious proposition. However, Pearses competed well and could easily have came out on top in three of the five games and advanced. It’s a game of small margins.
Pearses: C Lawless; K Donnellan, T Kenny, R Lally; R O’Neill, C Raftery (0-1), K Hardiman; C Donnellan (0-3), C Fahey; R Bellew (0-2), C Ward (0-1), J Gelston; L Murphy, S Hardiman, E Ward (0-1). Subs used: S Raftery, E Cunniffe, N Skehill.
Mullagh Scorers: D Glennon (1-3), P Kennedy (0-6), J Gaynor (0-5), S Cahalan (0-1), F Coone (0-1), A Whyte (0-1). Ref: Christy Browne.