Ballyhar started brightly enjoying good spells of possession. This was rewarded in 20th min when the hard working Quilter won the ball on the halfway line, finding Murphy who sprayed the ball wide for Fitzgerald, taking on his man and unleashing a shot that the keeper saved, but the ball fell to the excellent Alex Finn who made no mistake from close range to put Ballyhar in front. Athletic grew into the game from here but were unable to break the Ballyhar backline. Then just before half-time they piled on the pressure with back to back corners and only for the amazing reflexes of Daniel Duggan who pulled off a potential save of the season to keep Ballyhar in front at the break. H/T 0-1

The second half continued as a tight encounter but again, Ballyhar struck first when Kelly played Ryan Vickers through down the left, with the keeper saving his first attempt,  but he made no mistake with the 2nd attempt to give Ballyhar a 2 goal lead. Athletic wre far from finished and with nothing to lose came out fighting, making a few changes and taking the game to Ballyhar. On 50 mins they broke down the right and after a mix up 8n the Ballyhar defence, their striker ran through and finished well to make it 1-2. Fitzgerald and Vickers had great chances after this to increase the lead to 2 again only to see their attempts go wide of the target. A lapse in concentration by Ballyhar saw the ball turned over in the middle of the park, which led to a ball played over the top, again finding their pacy striker who had work to do, but finished well to the bottom corner 2:2. Tired legs saw the introduction of Diarmuid Casey who tried to help influence the game as both sides continued to play lovely attacking, end to end football. The Ballyhar back four of Adam Fleming, Jamie O'Brien, Daire Cornally &  Brendán Allman had to be at their best for the remainder of the game to keep the point they battled very hard for.

It was a great squad performance and a highly entertaining game from both sides. Thanks to Athletic for a great game and we wish them well in their upcoming Cup Final.  Man of the match was Brendàn Allman who was excellent on the night.