Ideal Bathrooms Meath Junior C Football Championship Round 5
Seneschalstown 3-13 Clann na Gael 1-15
Ideal Bathrooms Meath Junior C Football Championship Round 5
Seneschalstown 3-13 Clann na Gael 1-15
Two former Meath and Seneschalstown stars Graham Geraghty and Mattie McCabe pitched their managerial wits against each other in a beautifully presented Bective pitch for the final Group A game in the Junior C football championship on the evening of Tuesday July 19th. Both teams got a slight breeze and some cloud cover for this evening match from what was the hottest day of the year to far, but it was Clan na Gael who won the throw in – in fact they won both restarts for the fixture and started strongest.
Full forward Mark Gleeson despite carrying too many knocks to mention showed well in the first half, with one fabulous point off the right boot from an acute angle. Midfielder Aiden Finnegan also had his scoring boots on after some strong ball carrying through the middle and had the confidence to slot over accurately between the sticks for another excellent point, not to be outdone by his midfield partner Frank Sheridan also chipped in with an excellently taken point with the left peg. Ivan McCormack was motoring well and Shane Mulvaney who was busy during the first half took his chance well and nipped in for another excellent score from play. Mark Gleeson added another well worked goal that left the Seneschalstown side in a strong position in the first period.
Indeed, Mark Gleeson had another glorious chance to net after a good team build up but the chance was well saved by the Clan Na Gael net minder. While Seneschalstown were in attack mode they left the front door, back door and all the windows open, because when Clan Na Gael went forward there was no one at home and the walked in an easy goal – and they were back in with a shout.
The second half saw Clan Na Gael get in the driving seat in the contest, they began to dominate and eat into the Seneschalstown lead as it looked like Seneschalstown began to tire. McCabe and Seneschalstown with a large squad then called on Adam Gleeson and Steven Dillon to the fray to immediate effect. Adam Gleeson ran onto an inside ball to pick the pocket of older brother Mark and bag a goal from himself, but great to see both brothers celebrating the score with each other afterwards. That left the in demand Adam Gleeson with 3 goals in his last three games and fine second half contribution for the winners. Impact sub Eoghan Noonan who came on for the Mark Gleeson had an excellently taken point from play to ease Seneschalstown’s worries, after Conor McCoy had shipped a black card.
A win for Clan Na Gael would have guaranteed a quarter final spot where as a win for Seneschalstown mean they were tied on six points with two other teams in the group. Seneschalstown 3-13 Clan Na Gael 1-15 was the final result, but no qualification celebrations just yet as the result leaves Syddan, Clan Na Gael and Seneschalstown all equal six points, three teams vying to two group qualification spots, in what was a competitive group. For qualification in this group scores for and score difference will not count due to a walk overs received from Rathkenny and Kilmainhamwood and with all teams on 6 points having beat one another a playoff for second and third spot looms. Seneschalstown have grown in strength in the competition and got most of their scores from play, indeed they had eight different scorers on the evening while Ruairí McDonagh did excellently in goals and they will look forward to the next phase of the competition with renewed confidence.
Seneschalstown: Ruairí McDonagh, Philip Sheridan, Chris Dunleavy, Ruairi Keogh, Cormac Mullen, Johnny Muldoon, Sean Doyle, Frank Sheridan (0-1), Aiden Finnegan (0-1), Niall McCabe, Darren Donoghue (0-1), Brendan Lynch (1-2), Ivan McCormack (0-4), Mark Gleeson (1-2), Shane Mulvaney (0-1).
Subs: Steven Dillon for P. Sheridan, Adam Gleeson (1-0) for Shane Mulvaney, Conor McCoy for Darren Donoghue, Eoghan Noonan (0-1) for M. Gleeson, Conor Cantwell for Conor McCoy (bc). Peter Tierney, Sean Brady, Keith Walsh, Darren Englishby.
