Ballina Stephenites pip Breaffy in turgid Mayo decider

Ballina Stephenites 0-06 Breaffy 0-04

The most successful club in the history of the Mayo senior football were crowned county champions for the 37th time after a disappointing decider in Castlebar.

Ballina Stephenites won the ultimate war of attrition despite only scoring two points from play during the course of a disappointing contest that failed to live up to expectations.

Their second score from open play arrived in the fourth minute of added time as Luke Feeney's point sealed Ballina’s first Moclair Cup win since 2007 and consigned Breaffy to their fifth Mayo SFC final defeat in 10 years.

Konrad Coghill’s side failed to score in the 23 minutes and shot 11 wides over the course of their latest final loss. Breaffy were also beaten in the finals of 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2020.

Ballina were bouncing back from last year’s final defeat to Westport, and did just enough to win their sixth successive game of this championship campaign.

Niall Heffernan’s Stephenites side had led at the end of an underwhelming first half by 0-04 to 0-01.

Breaffy’s only score came from a Conor O’Shea free in the second minute as the West Mayo side squandered a number of scoring chances and found the going tough against Ballina’s tight-marking defence.

The Stephenites deployed Sam Callinan as a man-marker on Breaffy’s top scorer in the competition, Aidan O’Shea, and also had Padraig O’Hora patrolling the space in front of the full-forward.

As a result, O’Shea was unable to exert any influence on the scoreboard.

Up at the other end, two frees from Evan Regan and a fine score from play from Conor McStay meant that the Stephenites led at the end of the first quarter by 0-03 to 0-01.

The pre-match favourites were also dominant around the middle of the field