Ulster open FAI Amateur Inter-Provincials with narrow loss to Munster in Ballyare

Ulster went down 1-0 to Munster at Ballyare on Friday night as the  FAI Amateur Inter-Provincial Tournament got going in the north west. 

Gary Duffy’s side battled throughout but their southern counterparts just had a little more about them over the course of the 90 minutes. 

Nothing split the sides at the changeover in a cagey enough opening 45 minutes in what were perfect conditions on the night. 

However, Munster upped the ante on the changeover and with some quality reinforcements in off the bench like Matthew Keane and Eoin Hayes making a real impact, they eventually took the lead on 54 minutes through Eoin Murphy. 

And while Ulster did have opportunities to maybe split the spoils Munster, at the same time, squandered even better ones to have made the win a little more convincing. 

Back at the outset, just five minutes in, and Ulster went close to going in front as Kevin O’Loughlin’s glancing header from a Joel Gorman corner just cleared the crossbar. 

With the hosts in the ascendancy early on, Caolan Doherty tried his luck from distance with an effort that had the Munster goalkeeper scampering. 

On the quarter-hour mark, Munster’s Murphy saw his deflected shot well smothered by Seamus Houghton, while down the other end, Ronan McHugh had penalty appeals waved away after a coming together with Adam Delurey. 

Ulster's Jay Bradley up against Munster's Luke Walsh 

On the half-hour mark, a scuffed kickout from Houghton threatened to allow Murphy in on goal, but credit to Lee McColgan, he recovered well to avert that danger. 

Eight minutes out from the break and Houghton again showed his worth as he made a brilliant stop from Luke Casey, and with Adam Conway having a swing at the rebound, the Ulster netminder again came to the rescue. 

Sean Guerins then made a superb last-ditch tackle on Jay Bradley just as he was about to pull the trigger inside the area. 

On the stroke of half-time, Murphy found himself in behind the hosts’ rearguard, but he took the opportunity first time on the volley when the better option might have been to take the ball down. 

Nine minutes into the new period and Munster broke the deadlock as substitute Hayes rolled across to the lurking Murphy who made no mistake from close range. 

Almost instantly, down the other side, the ball sat up nicely for Bradley on the edge of the area but his connection was poor. 

On 71 minutes, a Murphy delivery for Munster just evaded the head of another busy replacement Matthew Keane. 

Inside a frantic last ten minutes, Hayes did really well down the right but no one was there to put away his inviting dragback from the endline. 

Pushing hard for an equaliser down the stretch, Ryan Lonergan and Lee McLaughlin both threatened to drag Ulster back into it.

Still, they were vulnerable on the counter and Houghton again came to Ulster’s rescue as he thwarted Hayes, Jimmy Carr and Keane all in quick succession. 

McColgan had a late drive turned around the post and from the resulting corner, Ulster almost forced the ball over the line but it was that Munster deservedly held on for the victory. 

In Friday night’s other encounter at Dry Arch Park, Bonagee, Leinster got the better of Connacht 2-1. 

Ulster now take on Leinster tomorrow in Buncrana, while Munster are up against Connacht at Ailech. Both games kick off at 1pm.  

Ulster: Seamus Houghton; Lee McColgan, Lee McLaughlin, Dean McCarry, Joel Gorman (Conor Graham, 70); Jay Bradley (Lee McMonagle, 71), Caolan Doherty (Brendan McCafferty, 71), Patrick Carr, Ronan McHugh; Eddie O’Reilly (Ryan Lonergan, 71)  Kevin O’Loughlin. 

Munster: Shane Hallahan; Adam Conway, Adam Delurey, Cian Murphy; Sean Guerins, Conor Kilgannon; Luke Walsh (Eoin Hayes, ht), Luke Casey (Matthew Keane, 71); Jake Dillon, Robert Walsh, Eoin Murphy (John Tamen, 87). 

Referee: Thomas Oates