Survival fight on the cards for Cille’s
DONAGHMORE-ASH 0-13 ST COLMCILLE’S 0-4 A FOURTH successive defeat has left St Colmcille’s with a battle against relegation firmly on their hands and they were well off the pace on their visit to Ashbourne last Friday evening.
In contrast the hosts went into the game unbeaten and after an indifferent opening half during which they scored only once from play they had matters much their own way following the change of ends.
Conor O’Byrne hit two of the Cille’s opening-half points, while corner back Adam Lynch was on target with the other as the sides finished level at 0-3 each at the break.
O’Byrne’s third point left it 0-4 apiece in the third quarter, but the Cille’s failed to add any further scores after that and the home side gradually pulled clear to record a convincing win.
St Colmcille’s will be hoping to pick up their first points of the campaign when they travel to Stamullen this Wednesday evening to play St Patrick’s in a back match. The teams also clash in the group stages of the SFC later in the year. ST COLMCILLE’S: A Beakey; A Lynch 0-1, J McDonnell, C Ward; C Mullen, I Mullen, D Brodigan; R O’Grady, R McCloskey; C Hilliard, C O’Byrne 0-3, S Collier; D O’Byrne, J Conlon, C Kelly. Subs: J Reynolds for Collier, J Sweeney for Hilliard.
SKRYNE 1-10 ST PATRICK’S 0-7 ST PATRICK’S became the latest team unable to halt Skryne’s winning streak in Division 1 which now extends to five match following this latest victory at Stamullen last Thursday evening.
Full forward Paddy O’Rourke was again the ace in the Skryne pack, notching 1-5, with four of the points coming from placed balls.
The goal in the 11th minute proved crucial as O’Rourke reacted quickest after Darragh Campion had smashed an effort off the woodwork.
Niall Mooney (two), Neil O’Flaherty, Shane Dowling and Alan Vickers were on target for the hosts in the opening half, but at the break it was Skryne who led 1-7 to 0-5.
The second half proved a low-scoring affair, with both teams having difficulty creating chances. Niall Mooney converted two frees for St Patrick’s only scores of the half, while Conor O’Brien had Skryne’s first score after half-time and their other two points came from the boot of O’Rourke. SKRYNE: Ian Gillett; Stephen O’Brien, Mark Harrington, Declan Morley; Ronan McCabe, Eoghan Greene, Eoin Smyth 0-1; Michael Doherty, Ciarán Lenehan; Conor O’Brien 0-2, Mark Battersby, Darragh Campion 0-1; Bryan Davis 0-1, Paddy O’Rourke 1-5, Ian Davis. Subs: Timmy Lennon, Jason Fox, Kevin Reilly, Robbie Clarke.
ST PATRICK’S: Robert Cluskey; Adam Byrne, Kieran Lynch, David McQuillan; David Stafford, Barry Mooney, Shane Byrne; Shane Dowling 0-1, Alan Vickers 0-1; Diarmuid Quinn, Johnny Woods, Neil O’Flaherty 0-1; Aaron Kenna, Niall Mooney 0-4, Ray Russell. Subs: Shane McGinty for Woods, Sean Mooney for S Byrne, Brendan Monaghan for Dowling.