The league opener pitched us up against a strong Ballymena outfit in Ballymena last week. The Ballymena lads lead from the outset and the Glenravel boys were always playing catch-up. Ballymena’s tally of 1-5 in the first half was enough for them to be leading by a goal at the break. Glenravel’s three points from play in the first half came off the boots of Eoin Hynds, Rian Lennon and Seán Mc Kay and Seán Mc Kay was to fire over a brace of frees leaving us trailing by a goal at half time.

Shane O’Boyle , playing at full back, swapped with Seán Mc Cusker in midfield and Declan Mc Auley centre half forward swapped positions with wing half back Rian Lennon at half time to try and bolster our efforts and the second half started promisingly with a goal from Rian Lennon. Ballymena struck back immediately with a goal and two points. Sean Higgins was to keep our interest alive with a goal however Ballymena again responded in kind. It was a real ding dong battle at this stage with Callum Higgins entering the battle and Jude Scullion flicking in a goal. Ballymena were able to respond every time we scored and they hit two points before Seán Mc Kay with a free and Rian Lennon with a point from play finished Glenravel’s scores for the night but not before Ballymena had struck the back of our net once more.

All in all a fair result on the night for the Ballymena lads but Glenravel can take heart from their gutsy battling performance. They chased and harried their opponents all night and our boys will have learned a great deal from this game. We had two boys making their debuts for the Con Magees, brothers Gabriel and Fiontán Leech. We had great performance from Eoin Hynds who played a real stormer. Shane was excellent throughout and Christopher was tremendous in his midfield slot. Rian’s 1-2 kept us in this game. Declan Mc Auley playing his first game of the year battled hard and the subs, Bobby Jack Carey, Callum Higgins, James Davies and Niall Óg Mc Guigan all got a run out and the experience will stand to them.

Team: R.Mc Closkey, F.Leech,S.O’Boyle, J.Martin, C.Hynds, E.Hynds(0-1), R.Lennon(1-2), S.Mc Cusker, C.Laverty, D.Donaghy, D.Mc Auley, S.Higgins, S.Mc Kay, G. Leech, J.Scullion, B.J Carey, C.Higgins, N.Óg Mc Guigan, J.Davies.