Massive congratulations go to Pat Fallon and his management team and to the extended squad members and players on Barna GAA Club’s flagship team for retaining their senior status for another year.
Barna senior footballers reserved their most impressive performance of the year to date for the game that matter most as they overcame Moycullen in the relegation final at Pearse Stadium on Sunday.
The team hadn’t won a championship game all year and were under pressure to put in a display that would save the club from being relegated to intermediate, a level that is notoriously difficult to emerge from.
But the team were primed for this battle and they produced their most clinical display of football in over a year to relegate their near neighbours.
The result was never really in doubt: Barna led by seven points to three after playing the far superior football with DD Flaherty, Tom Curran, Donal Feeney, Caolan Malone, Eoin McDonagh, James Kennedy, Robbie Curran, and Paddy Kennedy all to the fore in a comprehensive win.
The turning point, and the moment that sealed Barna’s senior status, was a second half goal by Tom Curran.
DD Flaherty went on a marauding run and he set-up substitute Declan Walsh whose shot at goal was just held up on the line but Tom Curran got on the end of it and poked it to the net. That left it 1-9 to 0-4 in Barna’s favour and any chance of a Moycullen revival was well and truly cut out.
Barna stretched their lead to 1-11 to 0-4 before Moycullen bagged top late goals to put a bit of respectability on the score line.
The relegation final finished 1-11 to 2-4 meaning Barna, for the second year on the trot, survived a relegation scrap and have retained the coveted senior status.
Attentions will now turn to the league, where the seniors are in need of some points.