Feis Cup Semi-Final
Seneschalstown 2-12 Summerhill 1-10
In the midst of one of the most celebrated weeks in Irish Sport, the Galway Races, Seneschalstown and Summerhill clashed in Dunshaughlin where the occasional showers failed to affect the ground which could definitely be described as good. These two sides met in the league couple of weeks ago in an excellent match and all present on Wednesday evening came in anticipation of another good match as both teams were keen to reach the finishing post in front.
Feis Cup Semi-Final
Seneschalstown 2-12 Summerhill 1-10
In the midst of one of the most celebrated weeks in Irish Sport, the Galway Races, Seneschalstown and Summerhill clashed in Dunshaughlin where the occasional showers failed to affect the ground which could definitely be described as good. These two sides met in the league couple of weeks ago in an excellent match and all present on Wednesday evening came in anticipation of another good match as both teams were keen to reach the finishing post in front.
Having accounted for Rathkenny and St. Patrick’s in the earlier rounds Seneschalstown arrived in confident form and were first to register after three minutes when Bryan Clarke, after the ball had initially bounced over him and his marker, got onto the loose ball before turning back and shooting over the bar from the left of the posts. Gary Conlon then pointed a minute later when after receiving a pass from Joe Sheridan sold his man a dummy before clipping the ball between the posts.
The experienced Adrian Kenny opened the Summerhill account with a pointed effort from play after six minutes before Clarke curled over a free from out on the right flank after being fouled himself. Summerhill then experienced their best spell of the first half when kicking three points in a row from play between the eight and fourteenth minutes courtesy of Brian Ennis, Paul Rispin and Damien Byrne. However, this was to be as good as it got for them in the first half as they failed to trouble the scoreboard operator for the remainder.
As a shower began to fall the rate of scoring in the match slowed dramatically as it took until the twenty fourth minute before the next score arrived when Clarke kicked his second free of the half before Conlon got the final point of his brace after bursting through the Summerhill defence at pace before firing over. The final point of the half arrived with four minutes remaining on the clock when James Conlon became the third Seneschalstown player to register after turning onto his left and pointing via the left hand upright to leave his side as the front runners with half the race run.
In recent matches Seneschalstown have conceded the opening score of the second period but on this occasion they kept their scoring run from the end of the first half going when Joe Sheridan kicked a fine score after barely forty seconds had elapsed. Adrian Kenny then kicked a fabulous point from way out on the right two minutes later as he judged the wind to perfection when curling the ball over with its assistance.
Sheridan then kicked another when after gathering possession out on the left he stood the full back up before carrying the ball infield and splitting the posts. Brian Ennis then kicked a free in response to narrow the deficit to two points before Clarke kicked another point from play, reacting quickest to a breaking ball in the full forward line following a long delivery from Brian Sheridan, as the game moved into the final third. Damien Sheridan then pointed after getting on the end of a move after getting on the end of a move started with an Andrew Collins free.
Corner forward Jack Fagan kicked Summerhill’s seventh point of the match before his effort was followed up by another from David Larkin as the gap narrowed once more to two points with just ten minutes remaining. Joe Sheridan though restored the gap to three when regathering a pass from Damien which he had allowed slip from his grasp and kicking over off his left.
The games defining moment arrived a few minutes later and although the score came from Bryan Clarke it owed much to the hard working James Meade. Meade collected the ball in his own defence before continuing on a run upfield in support of the ball carrier. When the ball spilled loose in the middle of the pitch he reacted quickest to regain possession. The ball was then quickly worked to Clarke who carried in from the right before arrowing the ball low under Tony McDonnell into the bottom left corner to leave Seneschalstown in the driving seat six points clear as the teams entered the home straight.
A quick sideline from Damien Sheridan found Brian Sheridan in space about thirty five yards from goal and he pointed off the outside of his right boot. The sudden scoring burst continued when Joe Sheridan showed the greatest desire to get onto a loose ball in the Summerhill square to fist the ball home. This major coming after second half sub Sean Noonan found him in space about thirty yards out. Sheridan hand passed off to Clarke whose shot for goal was half blocked onto the underside of the bar before Joe managed to get the last touch to divert the ball home.
The match appeared done and dusted at this point but as the finishing post loomed large Summerhill managed to rattle off a goal and two points, the goal from Jack Fagan and the two points from Adrian Kenny and a pointed free by Brian Ennis.
However Seneschalstown held on for the five point win and will now advance to take on St. Peter’s Dunboyne in the final. Seneschalstown had excellent performances on the evening from James Meade, David Matthews and Bryan Clarke.
Seneschalstown Scorers: Bryan Clarke 1-04 (0-02 Frees), Joe Sheridan 1-03, Gary Conlon 0-02, James Conlon 0-01, Brian Sheridan 0-01, Damien Sheridan 0-01.
Seneschalstown: David Lyons, Andrew Collins, David Matthews, Sean McCabe, Kevin Casey, Paul Carey, Niall Groome, Brian Sheridan, Damien Sheridan, Gary Conlon, Robert Ruddy, James Conlon, James Meade, Joe Sheridan, Bryan Clarke.
Seneschalstown Substitutions: Sean Noonan for R. Ruddy, R. Howard for J. Conlon.
Summerhill Scorers: Jack Fagan 1-01, Adrian Kenny 0-03, Brian Ennis 0-03 (0-02 Free), Paul Rispin 0-01, Damien Byrne 0-01, David Larkin 0-01
Summerhill: Tony McDonnell, Michael Gorman, William Ryan, Eamon McDonnell, Ronan Ryan, Paul Rispin, Stephen Husband, Damien Byrne, Michael Byrne, David Larkin, Brian Ennis, Adrian Kenny, Jack Fagan, Gary Rispin, Kevin Ryan.
