Spot-on Watters ensures fruitful trip for St Mary’s

ST MARY’S CLONARD 2-11 2-9

THE long journey to Clonard proved fruitful for St Mary’s as they made a flying start to their Division 4 league campaign.

Peter Watters proved the St Mary’s hero, ending with a personal tally of 2-7. That included the match-winning goal in the dying minutes from the penalty spot.

Clonard, playing on their new

RELEGATED Rathkenny were never seriously threatened by an out-of-sorts hosts Nobber who finished with 13 after having two players sent off in the second half.

Rathkenny had goals in the opening 10 minutes from Keith Curtis and Robbie Garry and they added a third before half time, courtesy of James Macken. Those goals boosted the visitors to a 3-5 pitch, had wind advantage in the opening half and made good use of it as they built up a 2-7 to 0-5 lead. However, St Mary’s were thrown a lifeline just before halftime when Watters found the net.

That goal made life somewhat easier of the east Meath side in the second half as they slowly worked their way back into contention. Points from Watters, Lochlainn Hill and Nicky Gogan closed the gap and St Mary’s were also denied by some fine saves from the Clonard keeper.

The deficit was reduced to the minimum twice before Watters to 0-3 interval advantage and at that stage the game was over as a contest.

The second half was 25 minutes old before Rathkenny added to their account. Their final goal was scored by veteran and Meath senior selector Donal Curtis who came on in the final quarter. RATHKENNY: Colin Curtis; Niall Brannigan, Ross Gore, Joe Gore; Thomas McGuinness, Christy Meade, Stephen Crosbie; Caolach Halligan 0-2, Robbie Garry 1-0; Jack Thompson 0-2, Brian Meade, Jack Gore 0-1; Keith Curtis 1-2, James Macken 1-0, Keith Timmons. Subs: Mark Byrne for Halligan, Evan Crosbie for stepped up to the spot kick that won it for St Mary’s.

Overall, this was a performance that pleased St Mary’s management, with the team showing great character to come from behind and a fine workrate throughout.

There were impressive debuts from Cian O’Brien and Paddy Brady, further signs of the progress being made at underage level.

ST MARY’S: Adam Byrne; Conor Lenehan, Brian Smith, Paul Scanlon; Nicky Gogan 0-1, Niall Curran, Graham Tully 0-1; Blaine Cromie, Eoin Craven; Lochlainn Thompson, Donal Curtis 1-0 for Timmons, Sean Mongey for B Meade.

NOBBER: Daryl Hutchinson; Stephen O’Brien, Eanna Fagan, Brendan Heffernan 0-1; Dean Halpin, Paul Meade, Niall Farrell; Thomas Murtagh, Richard Shields; Brian Meade 0-2, Dale Larkin 0-2, Jack Condra 0-1; Aidan Shields, Fiachra McEntee 0-2, Sean Meade. Sub: Barry Cassidy for A Shields.

3-12 0-9 WIND-ASSISTED Duleek-Bellewstown made the most of the elements throughout the opening half Hill 0-1, Robert Callaghan 0-1, Andrew Everard; Cian O’Brien, Peter Watters 2-7, James Lynch Subs: Andrew Duignan for Gogan, Paddy Brady for O’Brien, Bernard McKeown for Lenehan.

ST BRIGID’S 3-10 DRUMCONRATH 1-8 A YOUTHFUL Drumconrath, missing eight starters from 2017, lost out to a resurgent St Brigid’s on Sunday morning.

That was despite a good start by the home side as two Patrick Farrelly points and another from Stephen Crosby was added to by a David O’Halloran goal which as they made a winning start to their league campaign at Bellewstown last Sunday.

The hosts scored nine points in the half to build up a seven-point lead and then in the run up to half-time hit two goals in quick succession. Both were scored by full forward Stephen Nolan and it left the east Meath side leading 2-9 to 0-2 at the break.

The home side only managed a single point, from Darren Heeney, in the opening 25 minutes of the second half as Walterstown, with Brian O’Connell in fine scoring left the Drums leading 1-3 to 0-0 after 15 minutes.

St Brigid’s got back into the game after a slip-up in the Drumconrath defence gifted them a tap-in goal, but Drums still led 1-5 to 1-4 at the break following further points from Daniel Byrne and Jamie Myles.

Drumconrath opened well in the second half but only had a number of wides to show for their efforts and they lost influential midfielder Tomás Conlon through injury.

The home side were ahead by a point when full back Aidan form, threatened a revival at one stage.

However, Duleek-Bellewstown ended any hopes of a close finish with their third goal, from John McDonnell, before John Flood rounded off an impressive display with his side’s final point. DULEEK-BELLEWSTOWN: A Dowling 0-1; J Murphy, D Moore, S Townley 0-1; P Collins, J Flaherty 0-1, G Martin; E Byrne, S Crosby 0-1; B Moore 0-1, D Heaney 0-3, J Crosby; D Mills 0-1, S Nolan 2-1, G Reilly 0-1. Subs: K McCann for Collins, J Flood 0-1 for Mills, P Callaghan for Townley, J McDonnell 1-0 for Martin, D Teeling for Crosby, J Roche for B Moore. Tighe was dismissed.

St Brigid’s used the extra man well and outscored the home side 2-6 to 0-3, with Farrelly, O’Halloran and Byrne pointing for Drumconrath. DRUMCONRATH: Eoin Muldoon; Cathal McEvoy, Aidan Tighe, Packie Dunne; Jamie Myles 0-1, Peter Tighe, Sean Murray; Tomás Conlon, Christopher Tighe; Daniel Byrne 0-2, Stephen Crosby 0-1, Patrick Halpin; Patrick Farrelly 0-3, David O’Halloran 1-1, Daniel Myles. Subs: James McMahon for Conlon, Cathal Dunne for P Dunne.

•In another Division 4 tie Slane travelled to Boardsmill but suffered a shock 2-10 to 2-6 defeat.