Dunboyne 2-7
Simonstown 0-11

The concession of two goals in as many minutes in the first half proved fatal to Simonstown's chances of securing a first Hoganstand.com Meath SFC win against Dunboyne in Dunderry on Saturday night.

The sides were evenly-matched in the early exchanges of this Group C encounter but Dunboyne seized the initiative when they raised the game's opening green flag in the 20th minute.

Simonstown goalkeeper Ronan Duffy was picking the ball out of his net for a second time a minute later and Dunboyne parachuted into a 2-3 to 0-2 lead.

Moments earlier, Dunboyne netminder Johnny O'Connor had denied Sean Tobin a goal with a spectacular finger tip save and the team in black and amber led by 2-3 to 0-4 at the change of ends.

The team in sky blue enjoyed the lions share of possession in the second half and outscored their opponents by seven points to four but were unable to unlock the Dunboyne defence for the goal they desperately needed.

The closest they came was a punched effort from substitute Mark McCabe in the 48th minute.

Simonstown - R Duffy; S McGivney, I O'Rourke, S O'Reilly; N McMahon, E Donoghue (0-2), C Kenny; D Gaffney, S Barry (0-2, 1f); S Kenny, P McKeever, J Lyons; S Moran, S Tobin (0-4, 3fs), A Kearney (0-2, fs). Subs: M McCabe for Kearney, W McCarthy (0-1, f) for McKeever, M Gardiner for Lyons.

St. Peters hold off late Simonstown surge to gain the points!

St. Peters Dunboyne gained a crucial victory in the second round of the SFC against a Simonstown side who had also lost their opening game on a scoreline of 2-7 to 0-11 played in decent conditions in Dunderry. Even so early on in the Championship this game was crucial for both sides as defeat would leave them with an uphill struggle to get out of group C. The game started off pretty quietly with both sides trading early scores 3 of St. Peters early scores coming from the boot of recent Kerry recruit David Geaney two of which were from placed balls all of which were cancelled out with 3 from Simonstown two of which also were from frees.

The game only came to life midway through the first period when a high ball was directed into the net smartly by former minor star Jason Daly to give Dunboyne the first real advantage in this tie. This seemed to spark Dunboyne into life and soon after there second goal arrived after a pass inside from Geaney was fisted into the net by the impressive Donal Lenihan to leave Dunboyne five points to the good approaching half time which soon became six with a smart fisted effort from Shane McEntee to leave the scoreline at half time 2-4 to 0-4.

Simonstown were going to have to turn things around dramatically to stop the rot and quickly began to reduce the advantage as Dunboyne seemed to struggle to keep up the tempo of their first half display. The two first half goals were always going to play a significant factor in the outcome of this game but Simonstown kept the scoreboard going as point after point quickly began to eat into St. Peters lead most of which were from placed balls. When a goal chance did arrive some great defending from Dunboyne saw crucial touches from Damien Sweeney and John O'Connor prevent a certain goal which hit the outside of the post and rebounded to safety. Dunboyne only added on 3 points in the second half one from Gary Watters before another pointed free from Geaney kept Dunboyne in the lead by 2. Late on Simonstown bombarded the Dunboyne goal with high balls but couldn't find the goal needed and right at the end a fabulous effort from Donal Lenihan after he turned in from the sideline gave Dunboyne the securing point.

Dunboyne - 1. Johnny O'Connor 2. Gary Timoney 3. Damien Sweeney 4. Stephen McKenna 5. Cathal Finn 6. Barry Comer 7. Gary Watters 8. Sean McGarrell 9. David Gallagher 10. Shane McEntee 11. Ger Robinson 12. Colm Brennan 13. Jason Daly 14. David Geaney 15. Donal Lenihan. SUBS USED: Conor Doran, Stephen Moran and Johnny Meehan

SCORERS: David Geaney (0-4 3f's), Donal Lenihan (1-1), Jason Daly (1-0), Gary Watters and Shane McEntee both (0-1 each)
Best for Dunboyne were David Geaney, Donal Lenihan and Damien Sweeney Tweet

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