Frustrating defeat for Ballymoney

After last week’s defeat to Coleraine, Ballymoney were keen to show that they would bounce back.

The match kicked-off with a very sharp, but unseasonably warm, breeze coming straight across the pitch making handling difficult in certain areas of the park.

Only two minutes into the game Armagh were awarded a penalty when a Ballymoney player failed to release the ball once tackled. Steenson put the kick over despite the strong breeze and the score was now 3-0. This early penalty was not to dampen the Ballymoney resilience and straight from the kick-off they put the pressure on the visitors which resulted in a wayward box kick which was collected by the Ballymoney lock forward and scored a fine try five metres from the corner flag.

The conversion went wide to make the score 5-3 to Ballymoney.

Things were looking up for the Ballymoney men.

Armagh responded by piling on the pressure and a Ballymoney side that were keen to give away as little penalties as possible defended strongly until the were deep within their 22. Eventually Ballymoney’s defence was stretched too thin and this lead to second row, Joe Clark, touching down a fine try but Steenson failed to convert.

This brought the score to 5-8.

30 minutes into the game Ballymoney were awarded a penalty when an Armagh defender strayed off-side. This was kicked by Jamesy Cleland to bring the score to 8-8.

These were the last points Ballymoney were to score in the game.

Armagh, however, failed to capitalise when they had possession for a prolonged period inside the Ballymoney ‘22’. Ballymoney had their opportunites too but Armagh’s relentless attacks just kept coming, Ballymoney’s defence withstood a lot of pressure and it was only in the last 10 minutes of the game that Armagh broke it down.

Armagh crossed the line three times in the dying minutes of the game to take the score to a rather flattering 27-8 win.

The Ballymoney men were disheartened and frustrated with the way the game ended, knowing that they have struggled to find the flare and doggedness that brought them so much success in last season.

We hope to see the Ballymoney men turn this season around with a first cup game this week against Donaghadee at the usual 2.30 pm kick off.