Awesome Ardee storm to

Ardee CS St Mary’s DS 3-19 2-5

HOT favourites before a ball was even kicked in this year’s Lennon Cup, Ardee CS duly delivered on their vast potential with a stunning display in the final of the premier schools competition in Darver last Thursday night.

The reigning champions have been the dominant force over the last number of years and St Mary’s DS proved no match for them in a one-sided decider.

Refusing to entertain any threat of an upset, Ardee made a lightning start, racing into a 1-5 to no score lead after seven minutes.

With the enigmatic Ciaran Keenan in top form they built on that early cushion to open a lead by a whopping 3-11 to 0-1 at the interval.

It was all over for St Mary’s at that stage, but the Drogheda outfit kept their heads up and even managed to ‘win’ the second half thanks to goals from Luke Brady and Adam McCabe.

Ardee manager Anthony Durnin took the opportunity to utilise his considerable bench in that second period and he paid tribute to the entire squad, pointing out that it’s a golden era for the midLouth school.

‘It was a very dominant display,’ he said afterwards. ‘The players out there come from about seven clubs, so there’s a huge amount of talent in mid-Louth and we’re very lucky to have it in the school at the minute. It’s only a matter of filling the water bottles for us!’

Lively St Mary’s attacker Keenan was a huge influence on the game and Durnin believes the Ardee club have unearthed a real gem.

‘Ciaran is a gift that the Mary’s are going to keep benefiting from over the next number of years. He’s a lovely chap to start with, an unbelievable talent and so modest at the end of it. I wish him all the best. Plus these guys very good students along with it and high achievers in school too.’

On giving so many players a run after the break, Durnin said it was a no brainer and a just reward for the panelists who stay committed despite not being firstchoice.

‘There’s a panel of 40 players there and people wonder how we get them all to games. They all just want to play football and we’ll get as many of them on the pitch as we can.’

Next up for Ardee is the Leinster Championship as they bid to emulate last year’s All-Ireland success, but Anthony warned that they will have to be on top of their game.

‘The Leinster is a knockout, when you lose you’re out and there are no back doors, so we’ll see how we get on. We didn’t lose too many last year, but this is a new competition.’

Winning captain Donal McKenny echoed his manager’s assertion that it was a squad effort, stating: ‘It’s unbelievable to finish off school football with another Lennon Cup medal and it’s great for the school.

‘We don’t have a team here, it’s a squad. There’s 30-odd there and then even a few TY lads were unlucky not to get on, but they have two years left now. All the fifth and sixth years got on so that’s great to see as well.’

However, he did pay tribute to St Mary’s teammate Keenan and insisted the supply into their talisman was top class too.

‘Ciaran is unbelievable and the ball he was getting in today couldn’t have been better. We have a policy of no solos, so as soon as our midfield and half backs get the ball it goes straight in and that worked well.’

Donal is already targeting a shot at Leinster and hopefully the All-Ireland.

‘Last year was amazing and it’s still surreal thinking back to it. Ardee, a small town in the middle of Louth, winning an All-Ireland, it’s unreal. I hope we can work hard and push on and do it again.’ ARDEE CS: Ciaran Keenan 2-6, Liam Jackson 1-1, Evan Malone 0-3, Cathal Fleming 0-3, Trevor Mathews 0-2, Tiernan Corrigan 0-1, Tom Jackson 0-1, Ben Quaile 0-1, Dylan White 0-1.

ST MARYS DS: Luke Brady 1-1, Adam McCabe 1-0, Thomas Rooney 0-2, David Bell 0-1, Eoghan Heeney 0-1.