Duleek Bellewstown 1-14
St Peter's Dunboyne 1-12

They say that the most important time to be in front is at the final whistle and so it proved as Duleek Bellewstown upset most of the pre-match predictions by claiming the spoils against St Peters' Dunboyne with a late scoring burst that yielded 1-3 to secure the opening Group A Championship points in a well contested encounter in a blustery Ashbourne on Saturday evening.

Playing with the wind and towards the town goal St Peter's opened well and had two points on the board in the first 5 minutes. Duleek Bellewstown got on the scoreboard on 7 minutes with a Conall McGinley pointed free after John Flood was fouled following good work by Pauric Howard in driving at the Dunboyne defence. Dunboyne hit back with two further points in the 10th and 11th minutes and when Ricky Nolan picked off an attempted point which dropped short, he laid it off to Stephen Nolan on his own forty, who quickly off loaded to Anthony Burke raiding down the left and he popped ofF a nice point. At this stage, Dunboyne were claiming most of the breaking ball around the middle of the park and pressurising the Duleek Bellewstown defence. However a rare breaking ball win by David Moore when he found Darren Heeney with a nice off load , who found Shane Crosby on the right wing and breaking forward he looked to be bottled up inside the 14 but he somehow managed to squeeze the ball over the bar from a near impossible angle. Mark Collins then levelled the match at the end on the first quarter after a good break from defence from Kevin McCann.

Capitalising on their midfield dominance and some wayward passes from Duleek Bellewstown, Dunboyne produced four scores on the bounce to stretch their lead to 4 as the halftime break beckoned. A goal mouth scramble and some resolute defending was required to stop Dunboyne claiming a goal and from the resulting working of the ball up field Cianan Byrne was fouled and Con McGinley popped over a point from the free. From the resultant kickout Mark Collins made a strong run down the centre only to be fouled and John Flood pointed to leave just two points between the teams at the break. Duleek Bellewstown 0-6 St Peter's 0-8

Playing with the advantage of the wind the second half opened with a delay after 30 seconds following a collision between Jason Brannigan and Dunboyne's David Gallagher. Conall McGinley got the opening score of the half on 2 minutes from a free following a foul on Darren Heeney, and Cianan Byrne was extremely unlucky not to finish a McGinley lob to the net. Dunboyne got their scoring on track again with a point on 10 mins after a period of pressure from DuleekBellewstown was defended well by the Dunboyne defence.

Two massive points from McGinley then brought the sides level. The first came from a short kick out from Ricky Nolan which found Brian Moore who dispatched to his brother David on the overlap and then David found McGinley on the left hand side underneath the stand and from 40 yards out he hit one of his trade mark points. Then following the kick out which went over the side line, McGinley received the resulting kick and from nearly the same position he repeated the feat and the sides were level at the end of the third quarter.

St Peter's were quick to respond and were back on the offensive with two quick points, one from play and one from a free and then following a kick out they won the breaking ball, worked the ball and released one of their inrushing forwards to drive the ball to net and within 5 minutes of being level Duleek Bellewstown found themselves 5 points down and facing defeat with 10 minutes to go.

From a long Ricky Nolan kickout, Darren Heeney secured a difficult offload pass, managed to break free from the Dunboyne tackles and drove a point from forty yards to ease the pressure but Dunboyne won possession from the kick out, drove up field and restored their 5 point advantage again.

With just over 5 minutes left, the fight back began with Anthony Burke kicking a fine point off his left following a pinpoint pass from Mark Collins. As Duleek Bellewstown pressed, Dunboyne engineered another goal chance with a shot hitting the base of the upright. From the resultant clearance Kevin Smith worked the ball through the middle and when Mark Collins released, Burke again drove goal wards and when his goal bound shot was deflected back he headed it back across the goal and in the scramble it ended up in the back of the net. Some say it was an own goal but Burke will claim it none the less ,it was game on with two minutes remaining .
As the game entered injury time Dunboyne secured a free on the right corner and when the ball was moved into a more favourable scoreable position following a bit of dissent it looked again that it was game over. But the free was sent wide, Podge Howard picked up the kick out following a delay for an injury to a Dunboyne player, passed to Mark Collins, and on beating two Dunboyne defenders drove the ball over the bar and the teams were level as the game entered the 3rd minute of injury time.

Supporters at this stage were on their feet shouting for the ref to blow up and secure the single point but there was still time for more. McGinley again picked up a pass to the wing and from just inside the 45 drove another massive point to put his team in front and when Kieran Collins poached a point with virtually the last kick, the two championship points were secured.

This victory was testimony to the heart of the players and sticking to the game plan. Twice they came back from 4 and 5 point deficits. As captain, Con McGinley led from the front with 6 points, and was well assisted by John Flood and Anthony Burke. The defence worked well as a unit with David Moore and Kevin Smith playing solidly.

Duleek Bellewstown - R Nolan, K Smith, K McCann, J Brannigan, S Crosby (0-1) , B Moore, D Moore, M Collins (0-2), S Nolan, J Flood (0-1 1f), D Heeney (0-1) A Burke (1-3), C Byrne, C McGinley(0-6 3f) P Howard, Subs K Collins (0-1) for J Brannigan, R Clarke for B Moore.

Dunboyne - 1. Andrew Markey 2. Jack Scannell 3. Stephen McKenna 4. Johnny Meehan 5. Cathal Finn 6. Tommy O'Connor 7. Seamus Lavin 8. Shane McEntee 9. David Gallagher 10. Gavin McCoy 11. Sean McGarrell 12. Craig Berrigan 13. Jason Daly 14. Gerry Gallagher 15. Ger Robinson. Subs - Damien Sweeney, Donal Lenihan, David Geaney & Conor Daly.

SCORERS: Shane McEntee (1-1), Jason Daly & Craig Berrigan both (0-3 each), Ger Robinson & Donal Lenihan both (0-2 each), & Gerry Gallagher (0-1) Tweet

Most Read Stories