All County Football A League Division 1 Round 10
Seneschalstown 3-10 Summerhill 2-12
When the whistle sounded sixty two minutes into this match in Fr. Tully Park the sense of relief among the Seneschalstown players and supporters was palpable as their unbeaten run in all competitions stretched to six courtesy of a very late salvo which served up a goal and a point to secure victory by the minimum.
All County Football A League Division 1 Round 10
Seneschalstown 3-10 Summerhill 2-12
When the whistle sounded sixty two minutes into this match in Fr. Tully Park the sense of relief among the Seneschalstown players and supporters was palpable as their unbeaten run in all competitions stretched to six courtesy of a very late salvo which served up a goal and a point to secure victory by the minimum.
Summerhill opened the scoring in the third minute after Seneschalstown had passed up on three scoring opportunities. The visitors were beginning to make inroads when attacking down the right hand flank of their attack and pointed twice in the sixth minute from this side before adding a fourth soon after when opening up the Seneschalstown defence all to easily.
An effective target man is a great option for a team to have and in his current form Joe Sheridan is proving to be most effective. Indeed it was Sheridan who pulled the home side into the game when getting on the end of a diagonal ball into the edge of the small parallelogram from Mark Carey. Diving at the ball which was landing between the goalkeeper and full back he got a fist to it and left the ball nestling in the bottom left corner of the net. Summerhill’s response was immediate and again attacking down the right they stretched their advantage back out to two points.
Two pointed frees from Bryan Clarke, the first brought forward after some dissent towards the referee, and one from Ciaran Macken, operating at this point at corner forward after picking up a knock following a hefty challenge, left Seneschalstown one point ahead. Summerhill were still making ground by attacking down the right wing and two further points brought them back ahead once more before Joe Sheridan kicked his first point of the half when rifling the ball over the bar after capitalising on a mistake in the Summerhill rear-guard. This score from Sheridan arrived on the stroke of half time and thus at the interval there was nothing to split the sides.
The opening exchanges of the second half were dominated by Seneschalstown who were now playing with the advantage of the breeze at their backs. Sheridan continued where he had left off at the end of the opening half when pointing after good link up play with Gary Conlon before Clarke floated over a forty five from the left of the posts. Summerhill reduced the deficit to one courtesy of a free following a foul by corner back Niall Groome before Joe Sheridan hit a goal and a point in a five minute period to leave his side in the ascendancy by five points.
Firstly he struck over a left footed point before turning his marker and placing the ball beyond the despairing dive of the Summerhill goalie at the end of a good team move started by Groome deep in his own defence and which also included Bryan Clarke, half time substitute Ross Howard and James Byrne. The minute after scoring a goal is supposedly a very dangerous time where a scoring side is liable to concede one and so it proved as inside sixty seconds Summerhill had the ball in the back of the Seneschalstown goal after capitalising on hesitancy at the back.
This goal was followed up three minutes later with a fine score from an acute angle out on the right and suddenly the away side found themselves back to only one point in arrears. Joe Sheridan brought his tally for the day to two goals and four points as he sought to settle the Seneschalstown nerves when pointing from forty metres before Clarke kicked another forty five, this time from out near the right hand sideline after he had missed an earlier free from a similar position. This score leaving three between the sides with nine minutes left on the clock.
Keegan Cup winning teams are never lacking in character though and 2013 Championship victors Summerhill rattled off a goal and three points over the next nine minutes to put themselves three to the good going into stoppage time and Seneschalstown looking like their recent run of good form was going to come to an end.
Yet there was yet another plot twist in this absorbing match when Clarke snatched a goal just seconds after Summerhill’s latest point to level the affairs once more. Clarke grabbing his goal after receiving a fisted pass from Sheridan and like he did last Tuesday against St. Patrick’s coolly sidestepped the despairing tackles before finishing to the net. Those among the home support were beginning to wonder if this was to be a point gained or one dropped considering they had held a five point lead earlier on but those thoughts had to be abandoned when after a long ball into Sheridan he flicked the ball down to Ross Howard who gleefully tapped the ball over the bar for what proved to be the winning point.
Seneschalstown will be relieved to have taken both points but know that their wastefulness in attack nearly cost them and with Dunshaughlin, currently in second place, visiting Fr. Tully Park for Round 11 on Saturday at 19:00 they will be fully aware that they will be unable to pass up on seventeen scoring opportunities like today.
Seneschalstown Scorers: Joe Sheridan 2-04, Bryan Clarke 1-04 (0-02 Frees, 0-02 ’45), Ciaran Macken 0-01, Ross Howard 0-01.
Seneschalstown: David Lyons, Niall Groome, David Matthews, Sean McCabe, Mark Carey, Andrew Collins, James Byrne, Brian Sheridan, Damien Sheridan, Jonathan Gilsenan, Ciaran Macken, Gary Conlon, James Meade, Joe Sheridan, Bryan Clarke.
Seneschalstown Substitutions: Kevin Casey for J. Gilsenan, Ross Howard for C. Macken, Paul Carey for A. Collins.
