Feis Cup Quarter Final
Seneschalstown 3-13 St. Patrick’s 3-10
The sizable crowd who journeyed to Ashbourne on Monday evening to take in the encounter between Seneschalstown and St. Patrick’s were treated to an excellent game of football full of attacking endeavour and played in a fine spirit. At the end of a game which featured a superb comeback from the men in white Seneschalstown could count themselves somewhat fortunate to emerge victorious as it appeared late on as though the game was likely to need extra time to separate the two sides.
Feis Cup Quarter Final
Seneschalstown 3-13 St. Patrick’s 3-10
The sizable crowd who journeyed to Ashbourne on Monday evening to take in the encounter between Seneschalstown and St. Patrick’s were treated to an excellent game of football full of attacking endeavour and played in a fine spirit. At the end of a game which featured a superb comeback from the men in white Seneschalstown could count themselves somewhat fortunate to emerge victorious as it appeared late on as though the game was likely to need extra time to separate the two sides.
After a minutes silence in memory of Patrick Mooney, brother of Seneschalstown stalwart Dessie who had been laid to rest earlier in the day the game got off to a quick start with Seneschalstown opening brightly. After the opening quarter they found themselves one point in the ascendency courtesy of three points from Bryan Clarke, including one very well struck forty five after ten minutes. They then began to exercise some superiority on the scoreboard when Joe Sheridan kicked a thirty metre point at the end of a move kick started by a superb block deep in his own defence by Sean McCabe. Sheridan quickly followed this point up with a bullet of a goal struck low into the bottom left hand corner after fielding a delivery from Brian Sheridan.
The Stamullen men were not to lie down and hit back with two points of their own from a forty five and from play to narrow the deficit before Ciaran Macken knocked over a rare point following good work from Mark Carey and James Meade to release him behind the defence for the opportunity. Following another pointed effort into the town end from St. Pat’s James Meade added his name to the scoreboard when pointing before Seneschalstown added a further goal and a point in first half stoppage time.
Firstly Sheridan continued to make a nuisance of himself on the edge of the square when following excellent work from Mark Carey who was having a fine game at wing back and a speculative delivery from James Conlon he used his strength to good effect and got his fist to the ball to deflect the ball over the bar. Less than a minute later Joe was to play Mark Carey in for a glorious goal opportunity and after his initial effort was expertly saved by the St. Patrick’s goalkeeper he seized upon the rebound before burying it in the back of the net past the despairing efforts of the net minder.
This late salvo left Seneschalstown firmly in the driving seat with a seven point advantage when referee Patrick Coyle sounded the half time whistle.
The margin was extended to eight points within ten minutes of the commencement of the second period but only after David Lyons had pulled off a fantastic save from a St. Pat’s goal attempt to deflect it over the bar. Seneschalstown’s wing backs James Byrne and Mark Carey quickly added points to bring the advantage to the eight point mark. Byrne getting his point after a Joe Sheridan goal attempt was blocked out. Mark Carey’s point was a superb team effort with started off when Byrne plucked a Lyons kick out from the air before being fouled. From the resultant free he spread the play out to Ciaran Macken who in turn fed the ball into Bryan Clarke who then laid it off to Carey to curl over.
St. Pat’s kept themselves in with a shout when pointing from play in the forty second minute before Bryan Clarke kicked two scores from play in a row, the first of which was a dazzling individual effort as he somehow managed to retain possession before gaining enough space to squeeze the ball between the posts from out on the right. As they had done all evening the Stamullen men kept the scoreboard ticking over with a point from play before Clarke converted a forty five following a save from a Joe Sheridan piledriver after a move which was beautiful in its simplicity. Brian Sheridan gathered a kick out before offloading to James Meade who fed Sheridan for his goal attempt. This left nine between the sides and Seneschalstown seemingly coasting into the semi-final.
However St. Patrick’s had obviously been reading from a different script and began to piece together a comeback which would rival anything the Galway hurlers had managed in Tullamore a day previously. Having switched midfielder Alan Vickers into full forward he combined with Niall Whearty to pilfer three goals in six minutes to get back to equilibrium before they edged a point in front after seizing upon a poor kick out.
While many sides would have let the heads drop Seneschalstown have been showing signs of good form recently and courtesy of a forty five metre Bryan Clarke free managed to get back to parity. Clarke’s free coming as a result of excellent tackling from the Yellow Furze outfits forwards which forced the turnover. With those in attendance now beginning to think that they were about to get added value for their admission fee and witness twenty more minutes of extra time there was still to be one plot twist in the absorbing clash.
Mark Carey, who had been an influential presence throughout bravely collected a loose ball on the left flank of his defence before delivering a foot pass to Joe Sheridan. Sheridan carried the ball on before playing in Brian who had made a surging run forward from his midfield berth. With most expecting he would take his point Sheridan had other ideas and spotting Bryan Clarke unmarked on the edge of the square he hand passed across for Clarke to palm the ball into the net.
Just over two minutes of stoppage time were played but the Seneschalstown men managed to hold out and secure a semi-final spot where they will face last year’s Keegan Cup winners Summerhill.
Seneschalstown Scorers: Bryan Clarke 1-07 (0-02 ’45, 0-02 Frees), Joe Sheridan 1-02, Mark Carey 1-01, James Meade 0-01, Ciaran Macken 0-01, James Byrne 0-01.
Seneschalstown: David Lyons, Niall Groome, David Matthews, Sean McCabe, Mark Carey, Paul Carey, James Byrne, Brian Sheridan, Damien Sheridan, Ross Howard, Ciaran Macken, James Conlon, James Meade, Joe Sheridan, Bryan Clarke.
Seneschalstown Substitutions: Eamon Sheridan for R. Howard, Adam Carey for J. Conlon, Kevin Casey for D. Sheridan
St. Patrick’s: Seamus Byrne, Ray Russell, Diarmaid Quinn, Andrew Reilly, Andrew Mooney, Shane Mc Ginty, Ciaran Calvey,
Alan Vickers, Kieran Lynch, Niall Mooney, Donal Landy, Martin Mc Kenna, Niall Whearty, Brian Calvey, David Stafford.
St. Patrick’s Substitutions: Barry Mooney for Martin Mc Kenna, Adam Byrne for Andrew Reilly
