St. Michaels 1-11, Dunderry 1-09        

Dunderry were busy and buoyant but just lacked that sharpness in front of goal while the St. Michaels lads were much more clinical and deservedly secured their first brace of league points in Dunderry on Saturday evening last.  

Credit must be given to both sets of players who despite the soft underfoot conditions served up a thrilling contest that was never fully decided until the closing minutes. 

A goal after 30 seconds from top scorer Shane McDonnell gave the St. Michaels lads a dream start, however the home side turned the game in their favour when they struck an unanswered 1-2 in an eight minute spell to go in front. McDonnell and Matthew Halpin split the posts to draw level at the end of the opening quarter, but the home side edged back into the lead with another minor on 18 minutes. McDonnell and Cian McFadden put their side back in front with two well executed points, one from a free with five minutes of the opening half remaining, Daniel Murphy made it a three point lead with his opener before Dunderry clipped the visitors interval lead back to two points, 1-6 to 1-4.     

Dunderry were first on their new scoreboard with two points early in the new half but the pendulum began to swing in St. Michaels favour courtesy of Murphy (1), McDonnell (2) and Cian McFadden (1) who hit minors without reply for a 1-10 to 1-6 lead with 44 minutes gone. This lead could have been greater but for a brilliant penalty save by the Dunderry 'keeper Cian Coogan from McDonnell which encouraged his team on to fire over two points on the trot, one from a dead ball but McDonnell pulled one back on 53 minutes for the perfect response. Matthew Halpin, J.B. O'Reilly and Ray Reilly who worked their socks off throughout but especially in the final minutes as Dunderry threw everything they had at St. Michaels, and they did manage to breach the visitors defence for the final score of the game, a point in the first minute of injury time.                                                                                                                                                                                     

St. Michaels team and scorers: Shane McCormack; Ben Reilly, Ciaran O'Reilly, Jack Dunne; Daniel Murphy (0-2), Matthew Halpin (0-1), Brian Reilly: JB O'Reilly, Cian Sheridan; Declan Reilly, Shane McDonnell (1-6), Ray Reilly; Paddy Fitzsimons, Jakub Bidzinski, Cian McFadden (0-2).                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Subs: Jack Griffin for Dunne, Scott Doyle for B. Reilly.                                                                                         

Referee: Peter O'Halloran 

Match report and photo: Pascal Reilly PRO.    

Tweet

Most Read Stories