SFC Rel play off: O'Rourke points Skryne to safety
September 25, 2017
Skryne's Paddy O'Rourke
Skryne 2-19 Duleek Bellewstown 0-13
Skryne prolonged their Senior Football Championship status into their 81st year with a comprehensive win over Duleek Bellewstown in Dunshaughlin yesterday.
In this match Skryne did what they have threatened to do all year and won with a bit in hand. They had played well in every championship game this season but had failed to finish out their early dominance and were always caught in the latter stages leaving them with just a solitary point to show for their efforts.
Yesterday was different and a score of 2-19 will win most games. The foundations for this win were set when Patrick O'Rourke shot home a great goal after 12 minutes to put Skryne in the driving seat and they went on to lead at half time by 5 points 1-9 to 0-7.
Patrick finished with an impressive personal tally of 1-9. Admittedly 7 of those points came from frees but in the history of the GAA very few games are won without a dependable free taker. In the case of Duleek Bellewstown 8 of their total of 13 points also came from placed balls.
The strength of the Skryne panel was tested again yesterday with further injuries to goalkeeper Des McAvinney and outfield players Colm Craigie and Darragh Campion.
In an excellent team performance all six defenders were on top of their opposite numbers with Declan Morley, Eoghan Greene and Dermot Brennan particularly impressive. Midfielders Aidan Tuite and Ciaran Lenehan controlled the centre of the field all day while upfront, apart from Rourkey, Paddy Fox had his best game of the year and Mark Battersby was a thorn in Dul/Bels side from the start. This full forward line scored 2-13 between them but all the team did really well with 9 different players getting on the scoresheet.
The old comment of 'what if' comes to mind with regard to finishing previous Championship games like we did this one.
But the the overall target for the year of mentaining our Senior status and gaining promotion in the League has been achieved so it's onwards and upwards into 2018.
Skryne - Des Mc Avinney. Robbie Clarke, Eoghan Greene, Declan Morley (0-1). Paddy Carpenter, Donie Ryan, Dermot Brennan. Aidan Tuite, Ciaran Lenehan (0-1). Eoin Smyth (0-1), Brian Davis (0-1), Colm Craigie. Paddy Fox (0-3), Patrick O'Rourke (1-9), Mark Battersby (1-1).
Subs used - Felim O' Rourke, Mark Jordan, Ronan McCabe (0-1), Jason Fox (0-1), Darragh Campion and Adam O'Sullivan.
