Seneschalstown 1-10 St. Patrick’s 1-16

Seneschalstown’s passage to the last four of the Coolrite Under 19 Football Championship was secured, but it was choppier than it needed to be as a result of a disappointing six point defeat to St. Patrick’s on Friday night in Fr. Tully Park. With social media not exactly flowing with score updates from the other group game between Raotath and Navan O’Mahony’s, it began to get incredibly frantic for Seneschalstown in the closing stages. Seneschalstown knew a win or a draw would guarantee top spot in the group but anything worse left them vulnerable to elimination altogether if Ratoath were victorious in Paddy O’Brien Park.

However, word eventually began to filter through that Navan O’Mahony’s won and that in itself guaranteed Seneschalstown’s semi-final spot, regardless of the outcome for Seneschalstown a few kilometres out the Boyne Road.

After a few minutes, it looked like Seneschalstown were in for a rather comfortable evening after a lightning quick start. There was less than a minute gone when Seneschalstown were in for goal when a patient phase of possession ended with Charlie Finnegan slipping the ball inside to Sam Kirwan and his shot across goal ended up in the top right hand corner. This was followed up by quick points from Éamon Finnegan and a Robbie Finnegan free, following a foul on Darren O’Brien leaving Seneschalstown five points clear inside the opening three minutes.

St. Patrick’s though, began to warm to the task and were very slick when moving the ball up front kicked three points in a row by the eighth minute. After ten minutes Seneschalstown restored their three point lead when Robbie Finnegan strode over to kick quite an unbelievable effort from a sideline ball from which the angle looked too tight to aim for goal even for a right footed kicker.

The ‘Pats continued to wrestle their way back into contention and had the margin down to the minimum by the end of the opening quarter. Finnegan continued his fine early form for the hosts when he made his own free and put it between the posts, and he also excellently kicked Seneschalstown’s next score again from a long range dead ball this time after wing back Charles McCarthy was fouled.

However, Seneschalstown only went in level at the break as the visitors finished the half strongly to go into the dressing rooms with the scoreboard reading 1-05 to 0-08.

Seneschalstown were dealt a hammer blow just three minutes after half-time when Meath Under 20 Jamie Murphy got in behind the Seneschalstown defence and crashed the ball into the roof of the net and from there it was a lead that St. Pat’s wouldn’t relinquish. They stretched their lead to four points by the time Robbie Finnegan kicked his first from play for Seneschalstown’s first score of the second half.

The sides shared the next four points with half-time substitute Jamie Norris clipping over a fine effort for the hosts and Séimí Byrne got on the end of some good work by Darren O’Brien to pop over after 39 minutes.

The Stamullen outfit though continued their fine display up front and lead by five going into the final ten minutes with Seneschalstown’s only reply during this period being another Robbie Finnegan point after Sean Davis set him up.

As Seneschalstown began to get frantic on the pitch, those off it were starting to worry if the margin of defeat would leave them out of the competition altogether. Seneschalstown’s last score was another Finnegan free in the 56th minute as St. Pat’s increased their advantage to six points. Seneschalstown even looked for a late goal which didn’t come and by the time Peter O’Halloran blew his full-time whistle there was a nervous wait for those in blue to see what way things worked out. When news of a Hoops victory filtered through there was a palpable sigh of relief as Seneschalstown can indeed look forward to a semi-final in a fortnight and have a chance to put this performance behind them.

Seneschalstown: Luke Healy, Seán Reilly, Danny Waters, Oran Lawlor, Jack McDonnell, Séimí Byrne (0-01), Charles McCarthy, Darren O’Brien, Aran Carey, Sean Davis, Charlie Finnegan, Sam Kiwan (1-00), Éamon Finnegan (0-01), Robbie Finnegan (0-07, 4fs, 1 s/l), Cian Hosie.

Subs: Jamie Norris (0-01), Mattie Cowley, Collie Scanlon

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