St. Michaels 1-14 Blackhall Gaels 1-09

St. Michaels got their first win of the year in this re-fixed Corn na Boinne Group B game in Batterstown despite the floodlights failing 20 minutes in. The away side started brightly with points from Canada bound Oran Meehan and Paddy Fitzsimons but the wind assisted Blackhall Gaels made good use of the conditions to deservedly race into a 0-8 to 0-3 point lead at the break. St. Michaels 3rd point came from the boot of Cian McFadden after a 15 minute interval to restore the power.

With work to do in the second half St. Michaels got off to a good start with Gearóid O'Malley and the returning Brian O'Reilly both splitting the uprights before Blackhall found the back of the net to maintain their advantage. O'Malley made use of the new rules to send over a couple of 2 pointers from frees as St. Michaels took full advantage of the breeze but Blackhall kept their noses ahead in this hard fought encounter. Oran Meehan kept the scoreboard ticking over with 2 points followed by a match leveller from O'Malley. As the game headed for injury time David Lynch's speculative ball wasn't dealt with by the Blackhall rearguard and Matt Moriarty reacted quickest to find the net in what proved to be the decisive score. Lynch then added the first 2 pointer of his long career to seal the win.

St. Michaels: Graham Dooner; Paddy Finnegan, Ciaran O'Reilly, Robbie Briody; Jack Griffin, Brian O'Reilly (0-01), Dan Murphy; Paddy Fitzsimons (0-01), Declan Reilly; Kuba Bidzinski, David Lynch (0-02), Cian McFadden (0-01); Gearóid O'Malley (0-06), Aaron O Connell, Oran Meehan (0-03). Subs: Sam Briody for Fitzsimons, Cathal Walsh for Griffin, Conor Bates for Declan Reilly,

Matt Moriarty (1-00) for O'Malley, Conor Harten for Meehan.

Report and photo: Pascal Reilly PRO.

 

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