St. Michaels 1-12, St. Pats 3-10      

St. Pats superior eye for goal proved crucial in Stamullen on Friday evening last but they were made to work for everything by a resiliant young St. Michaels side.

Ultimately it was the three first half goals, the first from a penalty that set the home side up for a winning formula. St Pats got the best of starts with 1-2 on the board after only five minutes play, the penalty coming in the third minute. Gearóid O'Malley opened the scoring for St. Michaels with two converted frees. The home side added a further two majors before Shane McDonnell converted a penalty on 21 minutes for St. Michaels. Both sides traded two points apiece before the short whistle with the St. Michaels scores coming from a placed ball from O'Malley and a brilliant effort from play from Cian McFadden. The home side led by 3-7 to 1-4 at the break. 

Trailing by nine points on the restart St. Michaels needed to hit the ground running but instead it was the St. Pats lads who grabbed the initiative with a converted '45 after only three minutes. To their credit St. Michaels stuck to their task and points followed from Kuba Bidzinski and a fine effort from Declan Reilly after a great move involving several players upfield. St. Pats pulled one back at the end of the third quarter but again the St. Michaels lads replied with interest as 'keeper Conor Gilsenan ( 1 x '45 & 1 free ) and  Gearóid O'Malley (2) made it a five point game with ten minutes remaining. The visitors defence led by Cathal Walsh were doing trojan work in keeping the home side at bay and confining them to just a single point from play in the entire second half and there was hope for them when McFadden and O'Malley raised another white flag apiece to leave just three points between the sides for what looked like a remarkable comeback however time was not on their side and the goal they tried so hard for just wasn't to be and the home side converted another placed ball in the first minute of injury time to secure the points. 

St. Michaels team and scorers: Conor Gilsenan (0-2); Cathal Walsh, Ciaran O'Reilly, Brian O'Reilly; Jack Griffin, Matthew Halpin, Daniel Murphy; Ronan Lynch, Declan Reilly (0-1); Kuba Bidzinski (0-1), Robert Briody, Paddy Clarke; Cian McFadden (0-2), Shane McDonnell (1-0), Gearóid O'Malley (0-6).                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Referee: Liam Reddy 

Match report and photo Pascal Reilly PRO. 

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