Ballina Stephenites outclass Fulham Irish

Ballina Stephenites 3-11 Fulham Irish 0-05

Mayo kingpins Ballina Stephenites justified their hot favourites' tag with a comfortable Connacht club championship quarter-final win over London champions Fulham Irish at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in Castlebar.

Despite being without injured duo Padraig O’Hora and Dylan Thornton, as well as top scorer Evan Regan, due to personal commitments, the Stephenites easily progressed into a semi-final clash with Corofin next weekend.

First-half goals from Mikey Murray and Niall Feeney helped Ballina to lead at half-time by 2-06 to 0-02 and Conor McStay netted in the 57th minute to put the seal on the victory.

Fulham Irish played some nice football at times, but putting scores on the board was a major issue for them all evening.

Just one of their points came from open play – a neat effort from the industrious Jack Goulding in the fourth minute.

The visitors; only scores in the second half came from three Niall O’Leary frees, and they failed to add to their tally in the last 20 minutes.

Ballina were 0-05 to 0-02 up before Mikey Murray crashed in their first goal in the 25th minute.

Fulham Irish goalkeeper Andy Walsh, who made a string of fine saves over the course of the game, was beaten again six minutes when Niall Feeney tucked the ball into the net from close range.

The impressive Frank Irwin also landed three points (two from frees) in that opening half and the Stephenites were in total control at the interval.

The second half unfolded along similar lines, although Ballina struggled to convert possession into scores in the absence of Regan.

In fact, they only added two further points to their tally in the opening 23 minutes after the restart.T

hen Conor McStay came to life and shot 1-01 in