St. Michaels 2-10, Castletown 1-13                                                                            

There was confusion both on and off the pitch in Moynalty on Saturday evening when Castletown had what they thought was the levelling point disallowed in the second minute of injury time, apparently the linesman brought it to the referee's attention that they had an extra man on the pitch when the point was scored.  Undeterred from this setback Castletown played on and got the score that did level the contest two minutes later.

This was a cracking local derby in front of a large attendance on the immaculate Moynalty GFC grounds with some excellent scoring by both sides. David Lynch was first off the mark with a point from play, Castletown replied with two on the bounce before Shane McDonnell and Gearóid O'Malley combined before the latter rifled the ball to the back of the Castletown net on seven minutes. Five minutes later a Castletown player was fouled in the square and they converted the resultant penalty passed the outstretched Graham Dooner in the St. Michaels goals for a one point lead. The Michaels lads won their kickout and fed the ball to O'Malley to level the match for the first time but back came Castletown with two unanswered points before they were reduced to 14 men when their no 9 received a black card on 20 minutes. However the numerical advantage didn't benefit St. Michaels as they could only manage a further point from the boot of O'Malley before the short whistle while Castletown tapped over a further brace to lead by three at the break, 1-6 to 1-3. 

Castletown came out with all guns blazing for the second half and had three on the board by the 35th minute, then a brilliant move upfield by St. Michaels saw Declan Reilly cut through the Castletown defence and found half time substitute Patrick Tobin unmarked and he blasted to the roof of the net. Castletown set up the next attack but Graham Dooner was equal to it and pulled off a brilliant save to deny them a certain goal. Substitute Ciaran Lynch then sent over a fine effort from play before he reduced the deficit to two points with an excellent two pointer from a free. Castletown were again reduced to 14 men, this time permanently when their no 9 again received another card.  

At this stage the game was in the melting pot, Castletown had a two point advantage but ace marksman O'Malley was in fine fettle and he split the posts on three occasions before Tobin hit the final score for St. Michaels. As mentioned before the match ended in confusion over the disallowed Castletown point but they did manage to level the match before referee Pat Clarke blew the long whistle for what was a fair result in the end.  

St. Michaels team & scorers: Graham Dooner; Cathal Walsh, Ciaran O'Reilly, Harry Dunne; Jack Griffin, Matthew Halpin, Daniel Murphy; Brian O'Reilly, Declan Reilly; Kuba Bidzinski, Shane McDonnell, Cian McFadden; Gearóid O'Malley (1-5), David Lynch (0-1), Lee Morris.                                                                 

Subs: Patrick Tobin (1-1) for McFadden (HT), Cian Sheridan for Bidzinski (37), Ciaran Lynch (0-3) for Morris (40) Robert Briody for Walsh (43). 

Referee: Pat Clarke. 

Report and photo: Pascal Reilly PRO.

 

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