BALLYGUNNER 2-19 SLAUGHTNEIL 1-17
Slaughtneil's All-Ireland dream died at the semi-final stage yet again as Waterford champions Ballygunner powered into an All-Ireland final date with Ballyhale Shamrocks.
A poor start to both halves proved costly for the Derry side today at Parnell Park and it was another tough defeat to take for the Ulster side - their fourth All-Ireland semi-final loss.
“It’s very obvious we lost the game in the first five minutes of each half,” said Slaughtneil manager, Michael McShane.
“We went 1-2 down before we struck a ball in the first-half. Then conceded 1-1 at the start of the second half.
“It’s inexplicable. I don’t know. I’m not going to point fingers at anybody, but they were out of the blocks very quick and that was the difference in the end.
"So bitterly disappointed. We’ve given it everything that we could do over the last 10 weeks of training and we are very proud to have won another Derry and Ulster title.
“But this is where we wanted to be and we wanted to win today. We’ve had enough of glorious performances that ended in defeat and this is another one. We’re just very, very down.
“At half-time we were well positioned but five minutes into the second-half we were very badly positioned at six points down with a mountain to climb against a very, very good team.
“The goal we got, we could have done with that goal with 10 minutes to go. It just all came too late.”
In the second half in particular Slaugntneil struggled to win puckouts at both sides of the field as Ballgunner picked the ball out of rucks time and time again, or won the breaks.
It was one of the cornerstones of a fine victory, along with Stephen O’Keeffe’s devastating long puck outs to the wings - a telltale sign of a well coached outfit.
Slaughtneil struggled to get to grips with Ballygunner’s movement on their puck out, and to match it on their own, and as a result didn’t have enough ball to pressurise them in the second half.
When Slaughtneil sent Gearald Bradley back as a spare defender at the start of the game, it meant Shane O’Sullivan was able to sweep in front of full forward Brendan Rogers - the Derry football full back - and nullify his goal threat,
Rogers still managed four points from play while beside him Brian Cassidy showed a great hand to fire three of his own.
Blistering starts to both halves really set Ballygunner on the way, as Billy O’Keeffe hit a goal on three minutes and another on 31 minutes as part of a personal 2-3 haul.
This left Ballygunner leading 1-2 to 0-0 on three minutes and 2-9 to 0-9 on 31 minutes in a game which they never trailed in.
Slaughtneil only once got within a point - in the 27th minute.
Ballygunner never looked rattled despite Slaughtneil clinging to their coattails for most of the game.
In the closing stages Shane O’Sullivan and Pauric Mahony picked up meaningless yellow cards for hauling down Sé and Shane McGuigan, as Slaughtneil went for the goals they needed to get back into the game.
They’d fought their way back into, hitting four points on the bounce after abandoning their sweeper on 48 minutes at 2-14 to 0-12 behind.
Cormac O’Doherty went from midfield to the full-forward line and with Rogers now in the half-forward line, Slaughtneil made a real fist of it.
But Ballygunner just had two many threats, with Kevin Mahony at full-forward causing all sorts of bother, and Peter Hogan a real menace on the wing.
