Timely Conlon point gets Colmcille’s off the mark

ST COLMCILLE’S ST PATRICK’S 0-10 2-3

ST COLMCILLE’S picked up their first points of the campaign at the expense of their neighbours in this precursor to the championship clash later in the year.

It was corner forward James Conlon who struck with the all-important winning score close to the full-time whistle, bringing the Cille’s losing streak to an end.

The game was played in anything but ideal conditions, with torrential rain and a gale-force wind at the Stamullen venue, and that left the outcome very much a lottery.

It seemed as if the Cille’s had put their bad run firmly behind them following a bright start that yielded points from Ciaran Kelly, Conlon (two) and the in-form Conor O’Byrne.

The home side eventually settled down, though they found it difficult to create openings for scores and all of their first-half tally came from placed balls.

Two pointed frees got Niall Russell’s men off the mark and when they won themselves a penalty close to half-time Alan Vickers made no mistake with the spot kick. That goal left St Patrick’s ahead by the minimum at the break, 1-2 to 0-4.

The Cille’s also started better in the second half and regained the lead following points from Robbie McCloskey and Ciaran Kelly.

The hosts got back to level terms before Cille’s enjoyed a spell of dominance during which the inspirational Kelly took his tally of points to four, while Jack Reynolds was also on the mark during that profitable period in the game. That left it 0-9 to 1-3 and Cille’s looked safe at that stage, but they then leaked a second goal, with Niall Mooney finding the net to bring it back to level terms.

Proceedings werer to take one final twist, with Conlon popping up to hit the all-important winning score.

The result was enough to lift the Cille’s off the bottom of the table at the expense of Dunshaughlin, although the latter have one match in hand, while St Patrick’s lie eighth but have played more games than most teams below them. FIXTURES

TUESDAY MARCH 20 Football B League at 8.00 THURSDAY MARCH 22 Football A League at 8.00 FRIDAY MARCH 23 Football B League at 8.00 SATURDAY MARCH 24 Football A League at 5.00