LMFM Minor Football League Division 1 Round 4
Seneschalstown 3-14 Gaeil Colmcille 2-13
Following a break for the Leaving Cert exams in June, the LMFM Minor Football League kicked back into gear on a cold Monday evening for this time of year. Seneschalstown’s first test upon the resumption was away to Gaeil Colmcille in Grangegodden, with the away side looking to record a first victory of the interrupted campaign after three previous defeats.
With a strong wind behind them in the first half, Seneschalstown took full control of the game and wasted little time in doing so. After an early attempt at a score went wide, Phillip Smyth won the break on the kickout. Smyth carried forward and set Charles McCarthy through on goal who rolled the ball beneath the keeper to give Seneschalstown the ideal start. Cian Hosie raised Seneschalstown’s first white flag in the second minute when he collected a perfectly weighted pass from Collie Scanlon before engineering space for himself to shoot over from the wrong side for a left footed kicker. Hosie had his second point moments later when given the task of a simple 14 metre free after a late tackle on a Seneschalstown player was punished with a free from where the ball ended up.
Having come out of the blocks all guns blazing, Seneschalstown had to wait another nine minutes before scoring again, Cian Commons chipping over after being found by Scanlon as Seneschalstown were making hay in the large swathes of space left in the home defence. In the next attack, Jamie Barry got in on the act when he read a breaking ball from Commons perfectly and used the wind to full effect to knock over another score, and when Commons pointed again, the quarter hour ticked by with Seneschalstown having raced into an eight point lead.
On 18 minutes, Cian Hosie converted a long range after Peter Geraghty was brave in winning a loose ball on the ground. Geraghty got his just reward in the 20th minute when he got on the end of another good team move involving Aran Carey, Collie Scanlon, and Jamie Barry to kick a nice point.
Commons pointed again before the hosts got off the mark in the 22nd minute with a free, which they followed up similarly a minute later. Collie Scanlon found his range after some patient play in the forwards before Liam Dillon (free) and Commons pounced for Seneschalstown’s last scores of the half either side of a Gaeil Colmcille free leaving Seneschalstown 1-11 to 0-03 ahead at the interval.
With wind advantage now with the home side, Seneschalstown would have been wary of the threat posed by Kells youngsters upon the resumption. However, Seneschalstown made a clinical start to the half with Cian Hosie curling over a beauty before a well-executed team goal. Hosie and Collie Scanlon linked up to send Cian Commons through a gap and the Seneschalstown number eight produced a stunning finish to the top left hand corner of the net.
The home side began to eat into the Seneschalstown lead, using the advanced mark to good effect as well as capitalising on ill-discipline in the Seneschalstown defence with number of pointed frees. This ill-discipline would go a step too far when referee Joe Curran correctly reduced Seneschalstown to 14 men for a second bookable offence. A Hosie free was Seneschallstown’s only score in this 10 minute spell, before a third goal on the break looked to put the game to bed. Liam Dillon and Eoghan McGauran did well to manoeuvre out of a tight corner before unleashing Commons from the Kells 45’. Commions beat a couple of defenders before planting the ball to net, giving Seneschalstown a 15 point lead. That would be Seneschalstown’s last score until the fourth minute of injury time as the home side whittled that gap down to three with an unanswered 2-06. The two goals came within a minute of each other with one being a penalty.
Despite this, Seneschalstown never really looked like losing and after Cian Hosie was fouled on the counter attack in the last play, Liam Dillon knocked over the resultant free to earn Seneschalstown a four point win.
Seneschalstown will be looking to make it two wins from two next week when they host Ratoath in Round 5.
Seneschalstown: Colm McDonnell, Eoghan McGauran, Seán Reilly, Bradley Kirwan, Tadhg Lenehan, Liam Dillon (0-02, 2fs), Charles McCarthy (1-00), Cian Commons (2-04), Collie Scanlon (0-01), Phillip Smyth, Aran Carey, James Sharkey, Peter Geraghty (0-01), Cian Hosie (0-05, 3fs, Jamie Barry (0-01)
