Beastly weekend at office for teams from the east
SIMONSTOWN ST PATRICK’S 2-15 1-11
ST PATRICK’S suffered their first league defeat of the year when going under to the county champions at the north Navan venue last Thursday evening.
The Stamullen men got off to the worst possible start, with the concession of a goal inside the opening minute as hesitancy in the St Patrick’s defence allowed Chris O’Neill find the net.
O’Neill proved a constant thorn to the St Patrick’s rearguard throughout and the full forward ended with a personal tally of 1-7.
Donal Landy brought St Patrick’s back into contention with a fine goal in the 13th minute. Landy also landed a point in that opening half, while Niall Mooney contributed two. However, at half-time it was the hosts who led 1-7 to 1-3.
Simonstown pulled further clear in the third quarter, with their second goal coming from Mark McCabe. Shane Barry and Nathan O’Brien were also in fine form in the winners’ attack.
Niall Mooney hit six second-half points for St Patrick’s, while Landy and Neil O’Flaherty completed their scoring.
SIMONSTOWN: Robbie Burlingham; Mark Devlin, Stephen Moran, Niall McMahon; Brian McGrath, Niall Kane, Stephen O’Reilly; Roz O’Connor, Mark McCabe 1-0; Nicky O’Brien 0-2, Shane Barry 0-3, Joe Lyons; Nathan O’Brien 0-3, Chris O’Neill 1-7, Mark Gardiner. Subs: James Kilcullen for McGrath, Michael Gavin for O’Reilly, Alex Brady for Nathan O’Brien, Dean Curran for Nicky O’Brien, Seán Conlon for O’Connor.
ST PATRICK’S: Robert Cluskey; Adam Byrne, David McQuillan, David Stafford; Diarmuid Quinn, Alan Vickers, Shane Byrne; Kieran Lynch, Niall Mooney 0-8; Brendan Monaghan, Neil O’Flaherty 0-1, Barry Mooney; Ray Russell, Donal Landy 1-2, Johnny Woods. Sub: Aaron Kenna for Monaghan.
SKRYNE 5-11 ST COLMCILLE’S 0-12 NEWLY-PROMOTED St Colmcille’s remain firmly rooted at the foot of the Division 1 table following this latest heavy defeat against unbeaten Skryne at Piltown last Sunday.
Graham Reilly and Ben Brennan both lined out for the seasiders, who also welcomed James Conlon back to the fray, while Harry Rooney was an absentee for the Tara men.
This game was over as a contest by half-time after an opening-half goal blitz which yielded five goals for the visitors.
Corner back Robbie Clarke started the goal rush with his side’s opening score, in response to the first two points of the game for St Colmcille’s.
With Ben Brennan on target twice the sides were level at the end of the opening quarter - 0-4 to 1-1.
However, Skryne took control of proceedings after that and were rewarded with goals from Paddy Carpenter and Ian Davis. They then hit four successive points to open up a 10-point advantage.
Worst was to follow for Des Lane’s side as full forward Paddy O’Rourke bagged two further goals before the break to leave it 5-6 to 0-7 at half-time.
It was damage limitation for the Cille’s throughout the second half and they did manage to prevent the visitors from adding to their goal tally. James Conlon proved his worth in the losers’ attack as he accounted for three of their second-half points.
SKRYNE: Ian Gillett; Robbie Clarke 1-0, Mark Harrington, Declan Morley; Paddy Carpenter 1-0, Donie Ryan, Eoin Smyth 0-1; Michael Doherty, Ciarán Lenehan; Conor O’ Brien, Mark Battersby 0-2, Darragh Campion 0-1, Ian Davis 1-2, Paddy O’Rourke 2-4, Bryan Davis. Subs: Stephen O’Brien, Jason Fox 0-1, Kevin Reilly, Timmy Lennon, David McGoldrick.
NA FIANNA 1-15 O’MAHONYS 1-12 NAVAN O’MAHONY’S endured a narrow home loss to Na Fianna in bitterly cold conditions at Paddy O’Brien Park on Friday evening - Kevin Reilly’s charges’ second defeat from four outings.
Sean Smith gave O’Mahony’s an early lead, but with Shane Walsh prominent in attack Na Fianna gradually put distance between the sides.
Walsh’s 17th-minute goal left it 1-5 to 0-2 and by the 25th minute seven points separated the sides. Two fine saves moments apart by Na Fianna ‘keeper Shane Geraghty denied O’Mahony’s a possible brace of goals.
A pointed ‘45’ from team captain Cormac McGuinness on 29 minutes left the home side 0-6 to 1-8 in arrears at the break.
Daniel Queeney increased Na Fianna’s lead in the 33rd minute before Shane Gillespie responded with his second score of the game. O’Mahony’s made no headway until McGuinness’ 46th-minute goal - with help from Gillespie - to leave it 1-8 to 1-11.
A brace of points from sub Cathal Smyth trimmed the deficit to the minimum by the 58th minute. However, two late points secured Na Fianna’s first win from three league outings.
NA FIANNA: S Geraghty; D Downey, E Mullally, D Devine; O Smullen, A Neary, S Rafferty; O McDonnell, M Collins; C Downey 0-2, E Devine 0-1, S Martin 0-3; B Slevin 0-1, D Queeney 0-3, S Walsh 1-5. Subs: R Byrne for Slevin, J McNally for Collins.
O’MAHONYS: M Brennan; J O’Malley, N McKeigue, I Matthews; D Smyth, C Doyle, E Power; D Maguire, C Finnegan; A Mallon, P Whelehan 0-2, S Smith 0-1; S Gillespie 0-3, C McGuinness 1-1, R Keeleghan 0-3. Subs: J O’Reilly for Matthews, P Leahy for Mallon, C Smyth 0-2 for Doyle.