It was fitting that his 59th minute free, his seventh point of the game and sixth from a placed ball, was the winning score as Borris-Ileigh turned over Ballygunner’s three-point lead at the break.

In front of a 2,663 crowd, Ballygunner simply never got going in the second half and were reduced to just five shots at the Borris-Ileigh goal as Maher and his cohorts displayed incredible defiance to upset the odds.

The margin was three in Ballygunner’s favour when teenage wing-back Ray McCormack made a lung-busting run in the 45th minute before teeing up Kieran Maher to shoot low past Stephen O’Keeffe.

An inspirational Brendan Maher point followed and he added a free after a foul on Kevin Maher only for Ballygunner to strike back with a Barry O’Sullivan 51st minute goal as a splendid Dessie Hutchinson pass found him in so much space.

Jerry Kelly and Conor Sheahan then exchanged scores but Maher levelled the game for a ninth time when James Devaney was impeded and he produced the ultimate score after advantage had initially been awarded to Niall Kenny.

The wet conditions didn’t help the quality of the fare nor did some inconsistent refereeing but Ballygunner’s better finishing ensured they saw out the first half with a 0-9 to 0-6 cushion.

When others on the Ballygunner were fearful of shooting, Hutchinson was standing up and delivering, his third and final point of the half in additional time a peach of a score.

The teams were level five times in the opening 19 minutes but Borris-Ileigh were relying heavy on scores from placed balls. The ball sent into their full-forward line lacked quality whereas Hutchinson was getting to find the ball in space in front of Paddy Stapleton, who was coping well all the same.

It was Hutchinson who put Ballygunner 0-6 to 0-5 up in the 20th minute and another Ballygunner point followed from Paddy Leavy four minutes later.

Hutchinson then picked off that aforementioned beauty as he balanced the ball on his hurley and volleyed. Conor Kenny cancelled it out almost immediately but Pauric Mahony struck over his third free just before the turnaround.

Scorers for Borris-Ileigh: B. Maher (0-7, 6 frees); Kieran Maher (1-0); J. Kelly (0-3, 1 sideline); Kevin Maher, C. Kenny (0-1 each).

Scorers for Ballygunner: Pauric Mahony (0-5, 4 frees); D. Hutchinson (0-3); B. O’Sullivan (1-0); B. O’Keeffe, P. Leavy, C. Sheahan (0-1 each).

BORRIS-ILEIGH: J. McCormack; L. Ryan, S. Burke, P. Stapleton; S. McCormack (j-c), B. Maher, R. McCormack; T. Ryan, D. McCormack; C. Kenny (j-c), J. Kelly, Kieran Maher; Kevin Maher, J. Devaney, N. Kenny.

Sub for Borris-Ileigh: J. Hogan for T. Ryan (25).

BALLYGUNNER: S. O’Keeffe; E. Hayden, B. Coughlan, I. Kenny; B. O’Keeffe, Philip Mahonu (j-c), S. O’Sullivan; P. Leavy, C. Sheahan; M. Mahony, Pauric Mahony, B. O’Sullivan; D. Hutchinson, P. Hogan, T. O’Sullivan.

Sub for Ballygunner: C. Power (j-c) for P. Hogan (43); J.J. Hutchinson for T. O’Sullivan (55).

Referee: J. Murphy (Limerick).