1994 Meath Senior Football Championship Round 2
Seneschalstown 1-09 Ballinlough 0-03
By Conall Collier
Seneschalstown’s full-forward Padraig Coyle was sent off in the last minute of Sunday’s one-sided clash against Ballinlough at Kells.
Coyle received his marching orders from referee Paddy Kavanagh following a clash with Ballinlough’sRay Lydon and is likely to miss his sides next outing.
The game was well over as a contest long before that as Seneschalstown mastered their opponents without too much difficulty. Coyle will be a loss as he sent over three points and was influential in many promising moves.
However, Seneschalstown’s superiority was reflected in an almost relaxed approach to the second half, during which they restricted Ballinlough to a solitary Declan Lynch point in the third minute.
The Furze were sharper throughout and were boosted by an opportunist Mattie McCabe goal before the interval which left them 1-5 to 0-2 ahead at the break.
McCabe accounted for three of those first half points and took his goal superbly after Graham Geraghty made the opening. Geraghty had a fine game also and made excellent use of possession and moved well off the ball. Coyle’s free and Stephen Dillon from play completed the first half tally.
DEFENSIVE
Ballinlough were on the defensive for most of the opening half and points in each quarter by Francis Tunney and Lynch were their only rewards. They found it difficult to make progress against a solid full-back line in which Paul Finnegan, Kevin Macken and Ray Butler were outstanding. Indeed, goalie Patrick Darby was redundant for most of the game, such was the dominance of this line.
Paul Donohoe , Colm Coyle and Jim Farrell were equally proficient in the half-back line and curtailed the threat of Lynch and Jody Devine when he moved to that sector after the resumption.
The second half was played in heavy rain and was almost a non-event. Ballinlough battled bravely, but never seemed capable of making a game of it.
Points from David Carter, from Alan Finnegan’s pass, and Padraig Coyle increased the margin to seven points (1-7 to 0-3) by the end of the third quarter and the remainder was academic until the last minute dismissal of Coyle. The Furze player could have avoided it by not getting involved in an incident which didn’t concern him.
Seneschalstown – P. Darby; P. Finnegan, K. Macken, R. Butler; P. Donohoe, C. Coyle, J. Farrell; G. Geraghty, D. Dillon; T. McDonnell, A. Finnegan, M. McCabe (1-3); D. Carter (0-1), P. Coyle (0-3), S. Dillon (0-2).
Ballinlough – T. Smith; M. Tuite, S. McGee, F. O’Higgins; G. McDonnell, P. O’Brien, B. Smith; D. Mullally, J. Devine; S. Byrne, D. Lynch (0-2), T. Fox; M. Reilly, F. Tunney (0-1), R. Lydon. Sub: M. McDonnell for Fox.
Referee – Paddy Kavanagh (St. Ultan’s).
