On a beautiful Sunday afternoon Swinford maintained their 100% record in Division 4. With manager Tom Byrne and trainer Billy McNicholas on holidays John Dunne stepped in with Shane Campbell to look after the team.

Both teams started off with a couple of wides and it wasn’t till the 8th minute that Michael Prendergast opened the scoring. Ballina equalised a few miniutes later but Michael Predergast added two more points, from long distance to open up a two point gap. After a couple of more wides from both teams, Mark Forkan put over a fine worked point. Ballina pulled one back from a free.

Swinford then took control before the break with points from Jack McDonnell, Jason McLoughlin, Darren Campbell and a second from Jason to put Swinford six ahead. Just before the interval Ballina got their third.

Jason McLoughlin started off the second half as he finished the first with his third point. Again both teams were wayward with the shooting in this half as they shared a number of wides and Swinford dropped a number of balls short.

Ballina brought it back to five but this was as close as they got as Liam Moran added a free and points from play by Jack McDonnell and Liam. With just over ten minutes left Ballina got their fifth point but Swinford added points from Michael Walsh, Darren Campbell and Liam Moran.

Into the last five minutes Swinford led by ten points, Ballina pulled one back butthis was cancelled out by a point from Liam Moran. Ballina then added a free and a goal to bring the gap to 6 with three minutes remaining. Substitute Kevin Doyle and Conor Conway added points to leave it Swinford 0-18 Ballina 1-7.

It was a good afternoon work for Swinford with nine difference scorers and 0-15 from play.The defence was in top shape and a lot of blocks and tackles were put in to restrict Ballina to 1-7.

Next up is the Michael Walsh Intermediate League.

Thanks to John Dunne for stepping in today. I’m sure he will be in a similiar position on a full time basis in the future.

Swinford: Aaron Kinsella, Alan McLoughlin, Sean Brady, Aiden McLoughlin, Conor Conway, Mark Forkan, James Lavin, Johnny Burke, Michael Walsh, James Sweeney, Michael Prendergast, Liam Moran, Jason McLoughlin, Darren Campbell, Jack McDonnell. Subs Tom Horkan, Sean Prendergast, Kevin Doyle, Anthony Friel.

Scorers: Liam Moran 0-4, Michael Predergast, Jason McLoughlin,  0-3, Jack McDonnell, Darren Campbell 0-2, Mark Forkan, Michael Walsh, Kevin Doyle, Conor Conway 0-1