Seneschalstown 1-14 Dunderry 2-10 (After Extra-Time)

At the end of 80 minutes of football on a damp and windy Monday evening in Fr. Tully Park, it was Seneschalstown who had their noses in front after a pulsating, back and forth LMFM Minor Football Division 4 Shield Final against a game Dunderry. When the home side edged themselves in front at the end of the additional twenty minutes, it was only the second time they had been in that position, the other being at the very outset of the game.

When the game got underway, an early Seneschalstown attack inside the opening 30 seconds resulted in a 13 metre free which provided Johnny Finnegan with the simplest of opportunities to open his and Seneschalstown’s account for the evening.

Dunderry, playing towards the railway end of the ground, were backed by the stiff breeze blowing in that direction during the first half and established an early lead for themselves by kicking five points in the opening twelve minutes which left them 0-05 to 0-01 ahead.

Playing into the breeze Seneschalstown were finding it tougher to engineer scoring opportunities and had to be patient with their possession. After being awarded a free near the top of the 40 metre arc, Seneschalstown smartly worked it short between Johnny Finnegan and Charlie Finnegan and it was the 2025 Meath Minor, Charlie, who clipped over Seneschalstown’s second point from a close range.

Less than a minute later, Johnny Finnegan added another free for the eventual winners in the next attack but despite not scoring in the next ten minutes, Seneschalstown defended well at the back and didn’t let Dunderry add to their own tally.

This scoreless phase was broken when James Heery, who had been showing well inside, took on his man and kicked a fine score for Seneschalstown in the run up to the interval.   However, Dunderry finally added to their tally in first half injury time when they got in behind the Seneschalstown rearguard and it was finished to the net to give the youngsters in black a four point lead at the break, 1-05 to 0-04.

Facing into the breeze, Dunderry opened the scoring in the second half with a point from play in the 32nd minute. Two minutes later, Johnny Finnegan found himself in space heading for the goal from the left hand side.   When he jinked one way in the large square, he was fouled by a defender and referee Stephen Murphy came in with his arms outstretched to award a penalty.   Up stepped Charlie Finnegan to assume responsibility and he made no mistake, finding the bottom left hand corner of the net to hand Seneschalstown a massive boost.

Johnny Finnegan kicked a free that was brought forward to reduce the deficit to one and it looked as if Seneschalstown were building up a head of steam but Dunderry answered expertly, kicking two points on the trot at the three quarter mark to pull three points clear again.

Charlie Finnegan steadied Seneschalstown when he converted a 45’ with thirteen minutes to play but scores were not coming freely and Seneschalstown had to keep plugging away.

In the 53rd minute a loose ball on the dugout side broke in the direction of Robert Wyse. He played it forward to himself soccer style but Johnny Finnegan was closest to the ball on the ground and he picked it up and his shot just went over the bar to leave the minimum between the sides.

Despite keeping the pressure on Dunderry, Seneschalstown were wide of the target with a couple of efforts from play and long range frees but were handed a golden opportunity to tie it up with four minutes of normal time remaining when a Dunderry kickout didn’t travel outside the 20 metre line as required and Johnny Finnegan converted the resultant 20 metre free from straight in front of the posts.

With neither side able to conjure up a winner in the time remaining before the full-time whistle, it meant extra time was required to separate two sides who had nothing between them throughout the contest.

Dunderry, back playing with the breeze looked to have taken a major step towards victory immediately in extra time when they struck for a second goal inside the opening 90 seconds of the additional period and it was now a challenge for Seneschalstown to lift themselves once more both mentally and physically.

It took them five minutes to register a score in extra-time. Cathal Clarke, who now had assumed the free taking duties on the right hand side curled an extremely tricky free over the bar to leave two in it and that was back one when Johnny Finnegan added to his tally from another placed ball straight in front of goal.

After a goalmouth scramble in the Dunderry defence it looked for all the world that the ball would be toe poked into the net but somehow it stayed out.   Dunderry countered and went up the other end and tagged on a point which looked like a hammer blow to the home side as they trailed by two as the teams switched ends for the final time.

The tit for tat nature continued after the restart, James Heery kicked over his second from 30 metres and the sides were level once more when Finnegan, who was unerringly accurate all evening, kicked yet another free but as they had done so all evening any time Seneschalstown levelled it up, Dunderry edged ahead this time with six minutes of extra time remaining.

Seneschalstown looked to be running out of time and opportunities as Dunderry held possession with less than two minutes left on the clock, but when Dunderry breached one of the new rules when not keeping four players in their own half, Finnegan made it 2-10 to 1-13 heading into the final 60 seconds.

The home side kept the pressure on but were still a long way from goal before the referee spotted a foul on a yellow jersey at the 45’.   As it was, it would have been a chance for a shot at goal to win the game but when the ball was kicked away rather than handed back to Seneschalstown for the free, it was advanced up to the 20 metre line.   Having kept his side in the game all night with a number of frees, Finnegan made sure of the score with his ninth point of the evening to put his side in front as the clock struck the eighty minute mark.

There wasn’t even time for the kickout as the full-time whistle went and Seneschalstown had come out on top as one point victors. The side managed by Colin Clarke, Alan Finnegan, Kieran Harten, John Masterson and Ian Maguire will look to build on this with the Championship just around the corner.

After the game, Francis Flynn from the County Board presented the Shield to team captain Cathal Reilly.

Seneschasltown: Eoin Barry, Michael Cowley, Cathal Reilly, Patrick Dwyer, Ciarán Reilly, Ronan Lawlor, Tadhg Caffrey, Charlie Finnegan (1-02, 1-00 pen, 0-01 45’), Adam Clarke, James McGuinness, Cathal Clarke (0-01f), Johnny Finnegan (0-09, 8fs), Cillian Harten, Tom Concannon, James Heery (0-02).

Subs: Robert Wyse, Charlie Ward, Jimmy Markey, Cian Monaghan

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