Plunkett’s plunder points on the road

Oliver Plunkett’s Young Irelands 1-15 0-13

OLIVER Plunkett’s travelled to Dundalk for their opening game of the Division 2 campaign and it proved to be a worthwhile trip as they returned down the motorway with two points in the bag.

The Drogheda men were good value for their win, having played the better football throughout, with an early goal from Emmet Kelleher helping to put them in charge.

The Young Irelands fought hard to stay in touch but were hampered by the loss of Gerard Nixon to injury after just 10 minutes. However, they didn’t help their own cause by kicking a number of wides at crucial times over the course of the hour. The opening exchanges were evenly contested, with the Dundalk men getting off the mark first before being pegged back by the Plunketts.

The visitors edged ahead by 0-3 to 0-2 before Kelleher fired in the only goal of the game to put his side four clear, but the Young Irelands responded well to that setback and by the interval had reduced the gap to just 1-5 to 0-7.

It looked as if the game would remain finely balanced when the hosts levelled the game early in the second half, but the visitors were rewarded for some impressive play as they opened up a 1-8 to 0-8 lead. By the end of the third quarter they had increased the gap to 1-11 to 0-9 and were never in danger of letting the game slip from their grasp as they deservedly held out for victory.