Hoganstand.com Meath Senior Football Championship Group B Round 1
Navan O’Mahonys 2-17 Seneschalstown 2-05
Hoganstand.com Meath Senior Football Championship Group B Round 1
Navan O’Mahonys 2-17 Seneschalstown 2-05
When these two sides met in the opening round of the Hoganstand.com Meath Senior Football Championship on Saturday April 12th 2014 Navan O’Mahonys were setting out on their quest to regain the Keegan Cup and determined to lay down a marker for the year ahead they blitzed Seneschalstown to comfortably win by 3-14 to 0-08. In twelve months much has changed yet little has changed at the same time. Almost exactly a year to the day in this opening round match they comfortably disposed of the same opponents, albeit by a slightly smaller margin as there were twelve points between the sides on this occasion as opposed to fifteen twelve months earlier.
The Seneschalstown side showed six changes in personnel from the starting fifteen last year with promising minor Adam Carey given his Senior Championship debut at centre forward, a position which had been filled with distinction for many years by the now retired Ciaran Macken. Resplendent in their new jerseys, sponsored by Devenish Nutrition, Seneschalstown were looking to get off to a confidence boosting bright start and with only nineteen seconds on the clock, after winning possession from the throw in the ball was worked to Joe Sheridan and he found the raiding corner back Niall Groome who when bearing down on goal was unceremoniously fouled. Facing into the hospital goal, into which he had scored a vital penalty in the 2014 Feis Cup Final Brian Sheridan stood up to take responsibility and sent a perfectly taken shot into the top right hand corner to give his side the perfect start.
The reigning county champions produced the perfect response to this early setback though when scoring four points in the next four minutes to move into a one point lead. Firstly Stephen Bray popped one over the bar before Jake Regan notched his first of the day after being found following a quickly taken free kick when Seneschalstown centre back Paul Carey was adjudged to have over carried the ball when in possession. Shane Gillespie got the equalising point as Bray began to pull the strings from the forty, a score which was almost instantaneously followed up by a Ruairí O’Coileain free. Joe Sheridan brought the teams back on to level terms in the ninth minute, 1-01 to 0-04 after Niall Lyons had worked hard to place him for the scoring opportunity. O’Coileain soon added a second free after referee David Gough spotted a tug on a Navan O’Mahonys jersey from fifty metres away. On fourteen minutes Seneschalstown had a let off as when David Bray got into space in front of their goal he opted to blaze the ball over the bar instead of taking on the goal scoring opportunity which had presented itself. Alan Forde pointed straight from the kickout after reading the breaking ball and streaking away from his opponent to push O’Mahonys into a three point advantage.
Brian Sheridan through kept Seneschalstown in touch when cutting back on his left foot out on the right before splitting the posts. Unfortunately that was as close as his team were to get for the remainder of the match as the men in blue and white hit back with the next three scores, as they racked up a goal and two points. Firstly Forde showed his acceleration before pointing, Regan soon added a free before Stephen Bray beat David Lyons in the Seneschalstown goal to raise his side’s first green flag. Brian Sheridan then brought the first half scoring to a close when from a very acute angle, which didn’t favour a right footer he threaded the ball through the eye of a needle to bring his teams tally for the half to 1-03. Seneschalstown though were facing an uphill task at this stage as they trailed by six points as the two teams went in for the half time break in play.
When play resumed after the U-10 players from the two clubs had given a fine exhibition of the skills they learn each week at their coaching when playing two games at half time Seneschalstown were thrown a lifeline when Joe and Brian Sheridan linked up to raise a second green flag. Gathering possession out on the left Joe sent a high, raking delivery in towards the goalmouth and rising highest Brian got a fist to it and after seeing his initial effort stay out managed to claw it into the back of the net at the second time of asking. Like the start of the first half the O’Mahonys response was impressive as they recorded two quick-fire points courtesy of David Bray and O’Coileain. Joe Sheridan, enjoying a typically tough tussle with Niall McKeigue ventured out the field to get his hands on the ball and when getting it some fifty metres out sent a booming effort which sailed over the bar with plenty to spare.
Navan O’Mahonys took charge of events from this point to the end as seemingly irked by Sheridan’s point they moved through the gears to pull away from their opponents. O’Coileain pointed from a free, at which point referee Gough issued Seneschalstown wing back Gary Conlon with a black card. Shane Gillespie then hit a brace of points inside a minute, two scores which were quickly followed up by a Regan forty five. The strength of the O’Mahonys panel was soon clearly illustrated as they introduced Kevin Reilly and Rory Maguire into the fray and indeed Reilly was barely on the field before he had netted a goal
Bryan Clarke, who had worked tirelessly with little reward all night eventually got on the score sheet when his shot bounced over the bar before the reigning Keegan Cup Champions closed out the encounter with two more points from the boots of Regan and Rory Maguire.
Seneschalstown have a tendency to struggle in group matches before eventually coming good and securing a place in the knockout stages. They will take plenty of heart from this record and with Skryne next up in Ratoath on Sunday April 26th at 18:00 they will look to get their Championship campaign back up and running with victory. And while this was a disappointing result they will be buoyed by promising performances from players like Niall Lyons and Adam Carey while in defence Conor Cowley and Niall Grooms struggled manfully to plug the gaps.
Seneschalstown Scorers: Brian Sheridan 2-02 (1-00 penalty, 0-01 free), Joe Sheridan 0-02, Bryan Clarke 0-01.
Seneschalstown: David Lyons, Conor Cowley, David Matthews, Niall Groome, Gary Conlon, Paul Carey, James Byrne, Robert Ruddy, Damien Sheridan, Niall Lyons, Adam Carey, Bryan Clarke, Brian Sheridan, Peter Waters, Joe Sheridan.
Seneschalstown Substitutions: Cormac Noonan for G. Conlon (bc), Sean Noonan for R. Ruddy, Mark Fox for C. Cowley (inj.).
Navan O’Mahonys: Mark Brennan, Darragh Smyth, Niall McKeigue, Darragh Maguire, James O’Reilly, Shane Crosby, Brian Dillon, Cormac McGuinness, Stephen Monaghan, Ruairí O’Coileain, Stephen Bray, Alan Forde, Shane Gillespie, David Bray, Jake Regan.
Navan O’Mahonys Substitutions: Kevin Reilly for S. Monaghan, Rory Maguire for C. McGuinness.
