Seamus Connolly Catering All County Football A League Division 1 Round 3
St. Peter’s Dunboyne 2-12 Seneschalstown 1-11
Seneschalstown travelled to Dunboyne on St. Patrick’s Day to take on St. Peter’s in what turned out to be a most entertaining game of football.
With the team showing seven alterations in personnel from their last match against Duleek Bellewstown as well as some positional switches Seneschalstown would have been eager to get off to a positive start but it soon became apparent that this would not be the case.
Seamus Connolly Catering All County Football A League Division 1 Round 3
St. Peter’s Dunboyne 2-12 Seneschalstown 1-11
Seneschalstown travelled to Dunboyne on St. Patrick’s Day to take on St. Peter’s in what turned out to be a most entertaining game of football.
With the team showing seven alterations in personnel from their last match against Duleek Bellewstown as well as some positional switches Seneschalstown would have been eager to get off to a positive start but it soon became apparent that this would not be the case.
Inside the first ten minutes they found themselves one goal and four points in arrears as Dunboyne started the game as though they wished to have the two points in the bag as quickly as possible. It took until the thirteenth minute before Seneschalstown troubled the umpire when James Meade struck a free over from the left hand side having battled hard to win himself a free. This was quickly followed up by a first score of the day from Gary Conlon following good build up play from Meade and Niall McCabe.
Dunboyne then looked to snatch a second goal and were unfortunate not to get one when Cormac Noonan was forced into a goal line clearance when an effort on goal had beaten goalkeeper Wesley McDonagh. On nineteen minutes Meade put a free over from forty metres before Dunboyne notched a further two points which sandwiched a fisted Joe Sheridan effort following a centre from the right from Brian.
Meade then picked off a further two frees, the first of which followed a foul on Joe Sheridan which resulted in a Dunboyne defender earning himself a black card and the second one after some tigerish tackling from the Seneschalstown forwards forced a Dunboyne defender into over carrying the ball. Conlon then got his second score of the half when the ball was worked up field following an excellent block from David Matthews in his own defence, Matthews at this point operating at midfield following a switch with Cormac Noonan. The final score of the half then came from a Dunboyne free in the third minute of stoppage time.
This left the half time score reading St. Peter’s Dunboyne 1-07 Seneschalstown 0-07.
Similar to the first half Dunboyne got off to the brighter start at the commencement of the second when they struck the first two points. Meade hit back for Seneschalstown with his fourth free of the game before Dunboyne grabbed a third of the half.
The most contentious moment of the game then arose in the forty first minute of the match when Seneschalstown were somehow denied a second penalty in the space of a minute. The one which they were actually awarded came when Brian Sheridan was fouled after the Dunboyne goalkeeper had pulled of a save from a James Conlon effort on goal. Joe Sheridan took the penalty which was excellently saved and then in the goalmouth scramble a foul from behind on a Seneschalstown forward, which on another day would have been a penalty, resulted in a hop ball from the referee.
From the forty fifth minute to the fifty sixth minute Seneschalstown took over and through two points from Gary Conlon, another free from Meade, a fine effort from Jonathan Gilsenan as well as an excellently worked goal from Meade which followed some very good build up play from Joe Sheridan and Conlon. This left Seneschalstown two points to the good and hopes were high among the travelling contingent that the two points would be returning to the banks of the Boyne.
Unfortunately this was as good as it got and there was a further twist in the tail of the match as Dunboyne took over from here to the finish, outscoring Seneschalstown by a goal and three points to no score. The first of these scores came when Dunboyne took a quick forty five and worked a score following a superb stop from McDonagh. This was followed up within a minute by a further point while the death knell for Seneschalstown’s victory ambitions arrived when the big Dunboyne full forward headed a goal following a long ball in. They then added the insurance point in the sixty second minute of the match.
Following a game which had more swings than a children’s playground Seneschalstown will be disappointed to go home with no points but will be happy that their level of performance was markedly higher than in their previous outing. Next up is a home match against last year’s intermediate championship winners Gaeil Colmcille in Seneschalstown next Sunday, March 23rd.
Seneschalstown Scorers: James Meade 1-05 (0-05 frees), James Conlon 0-04, Joe Sheridan 0-01, Jonathan Gilsenan 0-01
Seneschalstown: Wesley McDonagh, Davy Byrne, David Matthews, James Byrne, Mark Carey, Adam Gleeson, Colin Gleeson, Robert Ruddy, Cormac Noonan, Gary Conlon, Joe Sheridan, James Meade, Brian Sheridan, James Conlon, Niall McCabe.
Seneschalstown Substitutions: Ciaran Macken for A. Gleeson, Adam Carey for N. McCabe, Jonathan Gilsenan for J. Conlon.
