Ballysteen claim Limerick U-21 A football title with victory over Ballylanders

BALLYSTEEN secured the Limerick U-21 A football title when securing a 1-11 to 0-6 victory over Ballylanders in the county final played in Adare on Friday night.

Ballysteen's superior firepower up front proved the big difference between the sides in the decider. Despite having eight points to spare at the end of an entertaining hour, just three players made up the winners' entire tally while the losers' was spread over six of their lineup managing a single point each.

Maybe the game might have taken a different direction had David O'Shaughnessy not scored its only goal after thirteen minutes but, when that put them six to the good, everything fell into place for the Deelsiders.

Confident they could get the scores when they needed them, they could concentrate on sucking the life out of attempts to respond and then moving quickly on the break whenever their opponents threatened to come close.

Neither did the rub of the green didn't fall the South Limerick club's way. A few early shots drifted frustratingly wide and the opportunity to respond quickly to Ballysteen's goal was foiled by an excellent save on the line.

While the effort never flagged right up to the final whistle, they could never put enough scores quickly together to build up enough momentum to unsettle their opponents.

Ballysteen led 1-8 to 0-3 at the interval.

SCORERS: BALLYSTEEN: David O'Shaughnessy 1-4 (0-2 frees), Joey Rushe 0-4 (3 frees), Paul O'Shaughnessy 0-3; BALLYLANDERS: Darren Frewen, Shabe O'Donoghue, Patrick Shanahan (free), Dan Blade, Cillian O'Brien, Philip O'Sullivan (free) 0-1 each.