Rathnew lay down marker

Village too good for St Pat’s

RATHNEW 2-13 ST PATRICK’S 1-8

RATHNEW laid down a championship marker with a dominant display against arch rivals St Pats on Monday evening in Merrymeeting.

They were always comfortable but a stunning start to the second half that yielded goals from a rejuvenated Mark Doyle and the inspirational Leighton Glynn put this game beyond the visitors reach.

The match started at a brisk pace and it was the Wicklow town men that struck first. County star John Crowe driving over a lovely effort in the first minute from 35 yards out. The villagers responded immediately. Gary Byrne found Glynn who was cynically took down by Pat McWalter.

Jody Merrigan popped the free with the minimum of fuss. From the kick out Glynn hassled and harried the Pat’s defence to retrieve possesion before drilling a beautiful right-footed effort over from the right touchline.

Both sides exchanged wides before Glynn again popped up.

A beautiful inside ball from Nicky Mernagh saw Glynn cut inside his marker and blaze a goal-bound effort just over Colm Byrne’s bar.

Back came Pat’s and Donal Fitzgerald looking back to his best jinked away from his marker John Manley before clipping a score. Stephen Duffy pointed a free shortly after to tie things up.

James Stafford started to get a stranglehold around midfield from then on and from a driving run forward he offloaded to Theo Smyth who pointed on the run.

Stafford then set up Glynn whose garry-owened effort stretched the villagers lead.

Good interplay involving centre back Jamie Snell ,Smyth and Jody Merrigan saw Graham Merrigan put into space and he finished well to put three points between the sides.

Duffy pointed a free to keep Pat’s in it before Merrigan restored the advantage.

A great 50 yard ball by Stafford into full forward Doyle who fetched and offloaded to Glynn in one swift movement who pointed again.

Tommy Kelly pointed a free for the visitors before Stafford and Doyle closed out the first half scoring and sent the hosts in with a five-point cushion.

From the restart Rathnew effectively killed this game as a contest.

Stafford claimed the throw in and launched a 60 yard ball in on top of Doyle who plucked the ball from the sky before side footing past a helpless Byrne.

Shortly after Glynn set Mernagh through for another point before a Duffy free stemmed the unstoppable tide.

From Peter Dignam’s kickout Rathnew broke at pace. Jody Merrigan gained possesion he set a galloping Snell through the middle he was brought down by McWalter with referee John Keenan awarding a penalty.

Glynn stepped up and sent Byrne the wrong way to stretch the lead out to eleven points. Soon after Glynn settled for a point when another goal was possibly on.

It looked like it could get embarrassing for Pat’s at this stage but they knuckled down and kept plugging away.

Wing back Shane Murley struck a beautiful point.

The intensity visibly dropped as both teams missed scoring chances before Fitzgerald struck a good goal for Pat’s.

An excellent diagonal ball by Shane Doyle was fielded by Fitzgerald who guided a first time effort past Dignam at his near post.

Duffy pointed a free soon after before Theo Smyth closed out the scoring with another point on the run.

Tempers flared near the end as Duffy, Snell and late sub Jordan Pettigrew were booked and Pat’s midfielder Eamon Wolfe was sent off on a black card after receiving a yellow in the first half.

The outstanding players on show were nearly all on the home side’s team.

O’Brien at full back, Snell at centre back, midfielders Stafford and Smyth and Doyle at full forward to the fore, however Leighton Glynn was man of the match with a personal haul of 1-5 and he orchestrated proceedings in the second half with smart positioning and vision of pass.

Donal Fitzgerald was lively for the vanquished visitors.

On this form Rathnew will have a serious say on the destination of the Miley Cup this summer. Scorers - Rathnew: L.Glynn 1-5 (1-0 pen), M.Doyle 1-1(0-1f),T.Smyth 0-2 J.Merrigan 0-2 (0-2f), J. Stafford 0-1, N. Mernagh 0-1, G. Merrigan 0-1 .

St.Pat’s: D. Fitzgerald 1-1, S. Duffy 0-4 (0-4f), S. Hurley 0-1, J. Crowe 0-1, T. Kelly 0-1(0-1f)

Rathnew: 1. Peter Dignam, 2. David Jameson, 3. Ross O’Brien,

4. John Manley, 5. Chris Healy,

6. Jamie Snell, 7. Gary Byrne, 8. James Stafford, 9. Theo Smyth,

10. Nicky Mernagh, 11. Jody Merrigan, 12. Graham Merrigan,

13. Leighton Glynn, 14. Mark Doyle, 15. Stephen Byrne, 16. Philly O’Neill, 17. Ronan Doyle, 18. Paul Merrigan, 19. Jonah Graham.

St. Pat’s: 1. Colm Byrne, 2. Wayne Doyle, 3. Emmet Cullen, 4. Ciaran Doyle, 5. Padraig Higgins,

6. Patrick McWalter, 7. Shane Murley, 8. Eamon Wolfe, 9. John Crowe, 10. Shane Doyle, 11. Paul O’Brien, 12. Conor Ffrench, 13. Stephen Duffy, 14. Tommy Kelly,

15. Donal Fitzgerald, 16. Conor O’Brien, 17. Lorcan Smullen, 18. Jordan Pettigrew

Referee: John Keenan.