Seneschalstown 0-13 St. Colmcille’s 3-12

The concession of three goals proved to be Seneschalstown’s undoing in Saturday’s Fairyhouse Steel Senior Football Championship opener against St. Colmcille’s in Stamullen on Saturday evening. Despite a strong response in the lead up to half-time to the first two ‘Cilles goals, Seneschasltown were left to rue a very slow start to the second half as the game began to gradually run away from them and ultimately, it did.

Seneschalstown played with the aid of the stiff breeze blowing diagonally into the scoreboard corner of the St. Patrick’s club grounds and were first on the scoreboard when Eoin Finnegan kicked a 25 metre free after a foul on Cathal Hickey.  Unfortunately though for the Yellow Furze men, they were hit by a sucker punch in the 4th minute. St. Colmcille’s wing back Oisín Brennan had a shot from out on the right which held up in the wind and it dropped into the goalmouth, however the ball slipped from the grasp of keeper James Meade and ended up in the net.

Seneschalstown replied quickly through Robbie Finnegan when he shot from under the scoreboard which landed over the bar. Ben Brennan kicked St. Colmcille’s first point of the hour from a free which was cancelled out down the other end when Alan Mulvany opted to fist over when running out of room close to goal after some good work further out the pitch from Joey Moore and Donie Commons.

The sides traded points once more in the 12th minute, Ben Brennan adding another free for the eventual winners and Dylan Keating converting from long range after a tidy move involving Commons and Cathal Hickey.   In the 17th minute, Seneschalstown were rocked back on their heels once more when James Conlon came up with St. Colmcille’s second goal of the game, rolling the ball to the net after a slick move up the field.

From there to the interval however, Seneschalstown’s response was impressive. Firstly Dylan Keating won a turnover in his own half of the field and laid off to Darren O’Brien. The rangy wing-forward bounced off and through a number of would-be challenges to clip over from a central position. Straight after, Alan Mulvany jinked and sidestepped past two challenges and used the wind to good effect to curl over his second of the game.   Seneschalstown’s tails were up and had the deficit back down to one when Joey Moore eventually had his name on the scoresheet after some confusion from the umpires who required assistance from the linesman to confirm if his effort from wide on the right had snuck inside the upright, which it had in his opinion.

Two minutes before the break, Cathal Hickey pulled his side level when he chipped over from a tight angle. The Boynesiders momentum was briefly stopped when Ben Brennan kicked his third point for St. Colmcille’s but Hickey was on hand to bring Seneschalstown level once more heading into the break with his second of the hour in the final throes of the half.

Seneschalstown squandered a couple of early opportunities at the beginning of the second half to hit the front again and it proved costly as the ‘Cilles set up base camp in the Seneschalstown half for the next ten minutes and reeled off 1-04 in a six minute spell to move seven points clear by the 40th minute which left Seneschalstown with an uphill battle going into the last 20 minutes. Donie Commons, one of Seneschalstown’s more prominent players for the duration of the 60 minutes got the end of a neat move to get Seneschalstown’s first score since the restart to leave six in it.

James Conlon kicked a free for the Seasiders but Seneschalstown didn’t give up the ghost and Dylan Keating added another to Seneschalstown’s tally after Alan Mulvany was blocked down. St. Colmcille’s continued to press on however, and despite late scores from Keating, which was a fine individual effort, and Alan Mulvany from a close range free, Seneschalstown could not get  close enough as St. Colmcille’s ran out eight point winners.

Seneschalstown’s second outing is against Simonstown Gaels on Friday August 23rd in Walterstown at 7:15pm, a repeat of the group stage clash from last year in Páirc Táilteann which ended all square.

Seneschalstown: James Meade, Neil Darby, Simon Rooney, Séimí Byrne, Ronan Conneely, Danny Waters, Mark Fox, Donie Commons (0-01), Cathal Hickey (0-02), Dylan Keating (0-03), Joey Moore (0-01), Darren O’Brien (0-01), Robbie Finnegan (0-01), Eoin Finnegan (0-01, 1f), Alan Mulvany (0-03, 1f).

Subs Used: Cormac Carolan, Brian Maguire, Seán Carey.

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