A League Division 1 Round 3
Skryne 3-11 Seneschalstown 0-16
The concession of three goals in the opening nine minutes proved too high a hurdle for Seneschalstown to jump in this Round 3 clash in Skryne on Saturday evening. With Fr. Tully Park deemed to be in an unplayable condition due to the recent unseasonably wet weather the match was switched to Skryne who to their great credit had the pitch in fine condition.
A League Division 1 Round 3
Skryne 3-11 Seneschalstown 0-16
The concession of three goals in the opening nine minutes proved too high a hurdle for Seneschalstown to jump in this Round 3 clash in Skryne on Saturday evening. With Fr. Tully Park deemed to be in an unplayable condition due to the recent unseasonably wet weather the match was switched to Skryne who to their great credit had the pitch in fine condition.
While disappointing to have to have given up home advantage for a second League game out of three Seneschalstown will know this wasn’t the reason for defeat and will instead have to reflect on the opening period of the match when they were torn apart by Skryne as the Tara men racked up three goals in a rapid fire start to proceedings.
Central to this opening was their very impressive left corner forward Niall Morley who bagged himself a brace of goals with his first strike coming before there was even a minute on the clock. The Seneschalstown side did muster a decent response to his first goal when first Jonathan Gilsenan and then Joe Sheridan raised white flags. Brian Davis though soon grabbed his goal when after Seneschalstown kicked the ball away from a free in front of the dugouts Skryne countered at pace and finding himself in the right place at the right time the livewire left half forward rifled the ball past Shane Corbally.
Centre forward Conor O’Brien then notched the first point of the game for Skryne before Morley brought their whirlwind opening ten minutes to a close with their second goal of the match. Bryan Clarke sought to settle Seneschalstown down when sending over points in the eleventh and fourteenth minutes, the first from play and the second from a forty-five. Skryne were to take control for the next period of the match with points coming from Morley, Stephen O’Brien and Neil Burke with two from frees.
Seneschalstown were struggling to get many of their players to the pitch of proceedings with only Clarke and Joe Sheridan really giving their direct opponents much to think about in attack and it was Clarke who hit their next point when after being fouled he got back to his feet, dusted himself down and curled the resultant free over from a narrow angle. Bryan Davis who was causing a lot of problems with his powerful running knocked over another point from play for the side in white but this was cancelled out by a Teean Cummins effort as he linked up well with Joe Sheridan.
Conor O’Brien sent over the next point for Skryne and this was followed by a Bryan Davis score with a Clarke free sandwiched in between after he was fouled himself as he got on the end of a tidy move involving Stephen Finnegan and Niall Hickey who was enjoying a ding dong battle with Paddy Fox. This brought the first half to a close with Seneschalstown staring down the barrel of a ten point deficit and serious work to be done if a comeback was to be mounted.
In need of a serious boost for the second half the cavalry was called upon at the interval and thus when Richard Morris threw the ball in for the commencement of the second half Seneschalstown had made four changes to their line out with Conor Cowley, James Byrne, James Meade and Eoin Finnegan coming into the fray for Gerry Sheridan, Niall Groome, Jonathan Gilsenan and Adam Carey.
Looking for a quick start to the second half they wouldn’t have planned on Skryne hitting the first score but this is what happened when with thirteen seconds elapsed Paddy O’Rourke, who was only lining out due to being suspended for Meath’s game in Salthill, pointed. Bryan Clarke hit back with a converted free before Bryan Davis restored Skryne’s eleven point lead. Clarke was the leading light up front for Seneschalstown as he enjoyed a ding dong tussle with Niall Lenehan and it was he who hit the away sides next two points, the first from a free to the right of the posts after a foul on Joe Sheridan and the second from play when he got onto the end of a well worked move started off by full back Cormac Noonan and also involving James Meade who did well following his introduction and Joe Sheridan.
By now the intensity levels were beginning to rise and with that the temperature levels as the match began to get somewhat testy with one or two individuals allowing their fuse to shorten.
Whether it was a measure of their efficiency in front of the posts or that they were struggling to create many opportunities it wasn’t until the forty fifth minute that Seneschalstown were to kick their first wide but crucially in that last quarter they were to kick four, the very amount they were to go on to lose by. As the match moved into its final quarter the lively Conor O’Brien hit over Skryne’s eleventh point but within seconds Bryan Clarke had hit back with a similar effort of his own.
The team in yellow were now beginning to gain control of proceedings and Joe Sheridan narrowed the deficit further when he kicked over an excellent score off his left boot. Second half substitute Niall Lyons then opened his account after forty-nine minutes with Bryan Clarke kicking the next two points, the second of which came when he clipped over a free following a foul on Eoin Finnegan which resulted in the perpetrator walking to the line after Richard Morris brandished his black card for the pull down foul. This free left five between the sides but with Seneschalstown unable to create a goal chance all they managed in stoppage time was one last score which came from the raiding left half back James Byrne.
This result leaves Seneschalstown with two defeats from three games played thus far, both defeats coming in the games where they had to forfeit home advantage. While they will be very disappointed with their start to the game there was enough to be seen in their second half performance in particular to suggest that there are brighter days ahead for them. Best for the Yellow Furze outfit were Bryan Clarke, James Meade and James Byrne while another positive was the return to action for the first time since the 2014 Junior B Championship Final of Adam Gleeson following a sabbatical in 2015.
Seneschalstown: Shane Corbally, Gerry Sheridan, Cormac Noonan, Sean McCabe, Niall Hickey, John Smith, Niall Groome, Damien Sheridan, Teean Cummins (0-01), Jonathan Gilsenan (0-01), Stephen Finnegan, Adam Carey, Adam Gleeson, Joe Sheridan (0-02), Bryan Clarke (0-10, 0-06 Frees, 0-01 ’45).
Seneschalstown Substitutions: Conor Cowley for G. Sheridan, James Byrne (0-01) for N. Groome, James Meade for A. Carey, Eoin Finnegan for J. Gilsenan, Niall McCabe for A. Gleeson and Niall Lyons (0-01) for T. Cummins.
