Sharpshooters – Padraig Forde

Padraig Forde – 127 goals

Padraig Forde

One of the few Ballingarry players to score on his debut when he did so against Villa Rovers during a Division 1 fixture on May 19th 1989 in a 3-0 win. He would carry on to set several club goal scoring records.

His ten league cup goals is a club record as is his nine FAI Junior Cup goals while he shares the record of most Munster Junior Cup goals with five. He scored seven hat tricks including one four goal haul which equals the most scored in a single game, only the second player to do so, while he is the only Ballingarry player to score a Desmond cup hat trick. He also shares the record of the clubs’ season top scorer having scored the most during six seasons.

He scored his 100th competitive goal against Breska Rovers on March 12th 2000 during a Division 1 fixture which was a scoring average of just over one goal every two games. All but one of his goals came from open play, when he equalled the old club record of 114 goals with a penalty against Ferry Rangers in the Munster Junior Cup. Although he played for his League he never scored for them.

He unofficially retired at the end of season 2003/04 but when a B team was introduced at the start of season 2008/09 he returned to the club to play with that team. It proved a wise decision for the centre forward as he claimed another 9 goals to take his career total to 127 in all. 17 of those goals were scored while on duty for the B team.

 Goals per season breakdown
Season
Team
Div
Lge
MJC
FAI
Lge C.
Des C.
Reidy C.
Total
Career Total
1988/89
A
1
1
1
1
1989/90
A
1
1
1
2
1989/90
B
3
6
6
8
1990/91
A
1
5
5
13
1990/91
B
3
2
2
15
1991/92
A
1
11
1
1
13
28
1992/93
A
1
3
2
5
33
1993/94
A
New 1
10
2
2
1
15
48
1994/95
A
Prem
4
4
52
1995/96
A
Prem
13
1
4
4
22
74
1996/97
A
1
2
1
3
77
1997/98
A
1
14
1
15
92
1998/99
A
1
92
1999/00
A
1
5
1
1
1
8
100
2000/01
A
1
6
2
8
108
2001/02
A
1
3
1
3
7
115
2002/03
A
1
2
1
3
118
2003/04
A
Prem
118
2008/09
B
3
8
1
9
127
TOTALS
96
5
9
10
6
1
127
127