Seneschalstown 2-10 Ratoath 2-05

Seneschalstown produced a strong second half performance to defeat Ratoath in the opening round of the Coolrite Under 19 Football Championship in Fr. Tully Park on Saturday night.   Trailing by two points at the interval as a result of conceding two first half goal, Seneschalstown were greatly boosted by goals in the second period from two of Thursday’s Minor Football Championship winning contingent in Charlie Finnegan and Cian Hosie.

Ratoath opened the scoring with a point from play in the fourth minute but Seneschalstown had their opening score straight from Luke Healy’s kickout. Just like on Thursday Charlie Finnegan rose highest to claim possession and he offloaded to Cian Hosie who did the rest, carrying forward and clipping over his first score of the night from a rather central position.

Team captain and full back Danny Waters put his side in front after six minutes when he got himself on the end of a move to kick between the posts. Seneschalstown were rocked back on their heels however, when Ratoath got in for their first goal after ten minutes to put themselves two points in front.

The home side were struggling to convert possession into scores and required some last ditch defending to prevent Ratoath from extending their advantage. Eventually after 22 minutes, Cian Hosie broke the scoreless sequence with a superb point from way out on the right hand side to reduce the gap to one.

Immediately though, Seneschalstown’s task became all the more difficult when a point attempt for the men in white deceived Seneschalstown’s Luke Healy and ended up in the net but their response to this was quite impressive.

The red hot Hosie continued his fine form this week when he kicked another from play after Séimí Byrne set him up with a slick pass, and it was him on target again with a free after Ratoath disagreed with the awarding of the initial free so Liam Reddy brought the ball forward. That score left two points between them at the break, 2-01 to 0-05.

It was Ratoath who scored first in the second period with a point from play which was cancelled out at the other end when Robbie Finnegan kicked a close range free after his namesake Charlie was fouled.

Two in a row for Ratoath threatened to take the game away from Seneschalstown as they moved four clear by the 41st minute, but from here Seneschalstown exploded into life.

A move down the pitch in front of the Seneschalstown dugout saw Danny Waters wind up a shot from out on the right, and in what has certainly become one of the most dangerous things in Gaelic Football – the miss hit point attempt, the ball ended up in an aerial contest between Charlie Finnegan and the goalkeeper with the centre forward getting there first to flick to the net.

Barely two minutes later Waters was involved again as he set up another of the Minor winners in Aran Carey to equalise with 44 minutes played.

In the 49th minute Seneschalstown gave themselves a massive platform to kick on. When Ratoath had possession on their own 13 metre line, Charlie Finnegan made a successful tackle on a defender which dislodged the ball and Cian Hosie was on hand to pick the ball up and roll it in into the bottom left hand corner and Seneschalstown lead by three with ten minutes to go. It looked like Seneschalstown were going to win comfortably in the 52nd minute when Liam Dillon found space to shoot and score after the ball was recycled out of the corner to leave four in it.

There was to be late drama however. Danny Waters who was probably Seneschalstown’s best performer on the night along with Cian Hosie, was a touch over zealous in his own penalty area which resulted in a penalty for Ratoath. When the large square was cleared, and the penalty taken, Luke Healy stood tall before diving low to his right and produced a strong hand to keep the ball out. It effectively secured the win there and then with five minutes to go.

Ratoath did pull a point back in the 57th minute but Seneschalstown went straight up the other end with a move that was finished off by Robbie Finnegan who took his point. Seneschalstown closed off the scoring with the point of the night when Cian Hosie, who had kicked 1-04 up to that point pulled the trigger from out on the left hand side with the angle not the kindest for a left footer but off the outside of his boot he kicked the score of the night to put the shine on a good victory for Seneschalstown, considering they haven’t yet trained as a full squad owing to the Minors successful run up to Thursday night.

With a game together now under their belts, they move onto Round 2 on Friday night in Paddy O’Brien Park against Navan O’Mahony’s.

Seneschalstown: Luke Healy, Seán Reilly, Danny Waters (0-01), Oran Lawlor, Jack McDonnell, Liam Dillon (0-01), Collie Scanlon, Darren O’Brien, Séimí Byrne, Alex Finnegan, Charlie Finnegan (1-00), Sam Kirwan, Éamon Finnegan, Robbie Finnegan (0-02, 1f), Cian Hosie (1-05, 1f).

Subs Used: Charles McCarthy, Aran Carey (0-01), Sean Davis, Mattie Cowley, Jamie Norris

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