The Bot are the Champs

With 14 wins and four draws in Division 1 this season Ballybot sailed straight back up to the top flight on the first time of asking.

They didn’t need a result against Ballyholland in their last league fixture at Olympic Park on Saturday - already nine points clear at the top of the table - and it looked like they might not get one with Ballyholland dominating the first half and an own goal giving them the lead. But the unbeaten run was important for Darren Bannon’s men and they turned things around in the second half with two goals and a much improved performance to win 2-1 in the end.

Barry Garvey got the equaliser with a superb free kick straight into the net on 65 minutes and Conor Garvey nabbed the winner 10 minutes later.

"Unbeaten, yeah. Straight back up, It’s the only way to do it,” said Bannon after the game.

"They were all over us in the first half but we were poor. I think we had the celebrations started before this game started,” which was understandable given that the trophy was waiting in the wings to be presented to Ballybot regardless of the result.

"But in the second half we picked it up. We made a few changes and finally got the win. We wanted to win this league unbeaten as champions. You don’t want to lose your last game and ruin that. We have a good squad and we deserved it. We were the better team the whole way through the year so we deserved it.”

Ballyholland had everything to play for in this match and it showed in the first half. They came into their penultimate fixture second in the table a point ahead of Orchard United who were playing their last league game of the season against Mayobridge simultaneously. Victory for Ballyholland would have secured promotion even had Orchard won. As it turned out, Orchard beat Mayobridge 3-2 to leapfrog Ballyholland to second spot and go two points ahead. They now play a waiting game as all eyes will be on Ashgrove and Ballyholland next week where a win will see the latter promoted and anything less will send Orchard up to the Premier Division.

For full match report see this week’s Newry Reporter in shops Wednesday March 6