LMFM Minor Football League Division 1 Round 5
Seneschalstown 3-9 St. Colmcille’s 3-12
LMFM Minor Football League Division 1 Round 5
Seneschalstown 3-9 St. Colmcille’s 3-12
Seneschalstown travelled to East coast on Tuesday evening for their Round 5 clash in the LMFM sponsored Minor Football League Division 1 clash away to St. Colmcille’s. By the end of the 60 minutes, the Seneschalstown lads could have been proud of their efforts against their hosts who have dominated at this age grade in Meath football in the last 5 years. Trailing by 10 points at the water break, Seneschalstown had drawn level by half-time and even took the lead early in the second half before St. Colmcille’s regained control and managed to hold on and eke out a three point win.
St. Colmcille’s certainly dominated the opening quarter and had the first two points on the board inside five minutes before Robbie Finnegan converted a free to open Seneschalstown’s account after a foul on half forward Sam Kirwan. However this was Seneschalstown’s only score of this period as the home side added a further 2-03 before the water break, including two goals in a three minute spell as things began to look pretty ominous for Seneschalstown. Their cause was not helped with a black card after 17 minutes temporarily reducing the visitors to 14 men.
However, something began to click for Seneschalstown as they started to claw their way back into the game. Firstly, Joe Norris managed to find some space for himself to fire into the top left corner of the net. This was followed up by two points in the next five minutes by Robbie Finnegan, both from play. One came after a fine team move, the second after Sam Kirwan forced an excellent turnover in defence before Norris did well to hold the ball while awaiting support on the counter attack. Finnegan did the rest when pointing from out on the right.
Norris had another goal for himself in the 27th minute when he picked up a loose ball, rounded the keeper and rolled the ball into an empty net and by this stage all the momentum was with Declan Byrne’s team. Only two adrift now Seneschalstown were making the most of this purple patch and a brace of Sam Kirwan points had the sides level by half time. A move up along the dugouts involving Danny Waters and the Finnegan cousins, Alex and Éamon helped create space for Kirwan to get his shot away for a point. With the last play of the half, Kirwan levelled the game when a free dropped short and was parried by the ‘Cilles keeper. Kirwan was quickest to react and pop the ball over the bar, leaving Seneschalstown feeling much better about themselves at 2-5 apiece.
Kirwan was causing St. Colmcille’s all sorts of problems and came up with the lead point for Seneschalstown two minutes into the second half, but just as they went in front St. Colmcille’s struck a hammer blow to their opponents with a third goal totally against the run of play. Falling behind only served as a wakeup call for the seasiders as they added three further points to lead by five points after 37 minutes. A Robbie Finnegan free reduced the arrears but two further points for the hosts left six points between the teams at the water break. With the instructions of their coaching team ringing in their ears, Seneschalstown managed to get themselves a third goal at the start of the final quarter, Norris completing his hat-trick after brushing off a number of tackles to finish low to the net after a powerful run. From there to the end however, the sides shared four points with Finnegan, from a free and Kirwan off the outside of the left concluding the scoring for Seneschalstown for the evening. Despite their best efforts, Seneschalstown could not muster up a goal to earn a draw which their performance from the 15th minute onwards would have deserved. Their Round 6 match takes place at home to Ratoath next Tuesday.
Seneschalstown: Luke Healy, Danny Waters, Óran Lawlor, Conor Rooney, Séimí Byrne, Tom McDonnell, Éamon Finnegan, Robbie Finnegan (0-05, 3f), Darren O’Brien, Cian Rooney, Joe Norris (3-00), Sam Kirwan (0-04), Alex Finnegan, Jack Owens, Kyle Hosie.
