St Mary’s 0-15 Moynalty 0-15

With both teams already qualified for the semi-final stage this encounter would decide who would finish top, table toppers would face Cortown in the semi final with runners up facing Kilmainhamwood.
Both teams met at the semi-final stage last year and despite losing by 2 St Mary’s gave Moynalty who were red hot favourites at the time a real fright.

Some questions might be answered today, had St Mary’s improved since last year’s encounter? Would playing 2 divisions ahead of St Mary’s in the League have been better preparation for Moynalty?

Duleek/Bellewstown’s Liam Reddy threw up the ball under grey overcast skies and the contest was underway. After a cagey start Moynalty drew first blood, having cleanly caught the St Mary’s kickout the Moynalty midfielder was tackled, surprisingly the ball was brought forward instead of awarding a free from the tackle spot, the resultant 2 pointer free was excellently converted by the Moynalty keeper Johnny Lynch. St Mary’s started to gain the upper hand after and soon had their first score, Cathal Sheridan getting on the end of a move to point confidently, the teams were soon level when Sean Nulty, who was becoming a thorn in Moynalty’s side pointed well from play. Andrew Brien then gave St Mary’s the lead with a pointed free. St Mary’s were very much in the ascendancy now and long direct ball into the lively full forward line of James Lynch, Sean Nulty and Andrew Brien were causing the Moynalty men real problems and St Mary’s could have had 1 or 2 goals but for good scramble defence from the Moynalty defence and excellent goal keeping from Johnny Lynch in the opposition goal. The pressure was however coughing up frees and Andrew Brien converted his second free to leave the Boynesiders 2 up. A well-timed run and fisted finish from Tadhg Dixon put Mary’s 3 up 0-05 to 0-02.

Having weathered this storm without conceding a goal, Moynalty then began to regain a foothold in the game, winning more primary possession around the middle and to their credit effectively turning that possession into scores, 3 unanswered points from play to bring the sides level again. Then St Mary’s won a break of their own, Andrew Brien won possession in front of his man before turning brilliantly to point. Then came St Mary’s first two pointer, Maithiu Brien broke the line then off loaded to Caimin Hughes to who kicked an excellent score from outside the arc, and with it brought St Mary’s lead back out to 3 points. Points were again exchanged a free from Moynalty and another fine point from play for Caimin Hughes, Moynalty pulled one back after some excellent defending from St Mary’s, who managed to deny a goalscoring opportunity, only to concede the point. Tadhg Dixon finished off the half’s scoring a fine point off his left.

St Mary’s had played with the benefit of a slight breeze in the first half, but it looked to have died off somewhat for the second half. Moynalty started the second half the brighter with 2 quick fire points from play to bring the gap back to 1. St Mary’s did however have an opportunity to get the game’s first goal when James Lynch toe poked a loose ball in the square however the Moynalty keeper was equal to the challenge. Happily, Sean Nulty steadied the ship for the Mary’s men with a great point from play. St Mary’s were defending very well at this stage, Joey Greene had moved to full back and was comfortably dealing with the long direct ball, while he was ably assisted by John Spain, Liam Lynch and Conor O Brien. Moynalty did however register a point following a rushed clearance from the St Mary’s defence, bringing it back to a one point game.

St Mary’s then had their own period of dominance aided significantly by Tadhg Dixon and Cathal Sheridan at midfield. The half back line of Maithiu Brien, Dylan Bagnall and AJ Bradshaw were also pushing forward and asking questions of Moynalty. This pressure paid off and Andrew Brien pointed 2 well earned frees to push Mary’s 3 ahead.

The sides again exchanged scores a point from play Moynalty followed by a lovely point from the recently introduced Sam Victory. It felt at this stage that Mary’s would keep Moynalty at arms length in the closing minutes, however, that’s not what transpired. With 2 minutes remaining Moynalty scored their first 2 pointer from play, a great left footed effort from Jude Gilsenan, and the gap was down to the minimum when Liam Reddy penalised the Mary’s for not having 3 players in the attacking half of the pitch, which the reliable Johnny Lynch brought the back outside the arc and slotted over to put Moynalty ahead for the first time since the 5th minute.

In the space of 3-4 minutes St Mary’s went from 2 up to 1 down, how would they respond? Adam Byrne’s kick out which had been impressive all day was picked up by Ben Loughran. A St Mary’s attack was mounted, Moynalty got back in numbers could they now hold on? The Mary’s men held the ball excellently and despite the temptation to have a pop they remained calm and eventually got the ball to Cian O Brien on the right who cut inside to improve the shooting angle but was fouled as he did so. Andrew Brien unsurprisingly converted the free. Liam Reddy sounded his whistle on the resultant kickout. The spoils would be shared.

Both teams won 2 and drew 1, both had 5 points, head to head didn’t come into play so St Mary’s topped the group but by virtue of the fact they had a 16 point better score difference. That would mean Mary’s would now face Cortown in the semi-final and Moynalty would have to content with Kilmainhamwood.

So for the second time in 2 years we have a Championship Semi Final to look forward to, a terrific achievement, however this time this group of players and management will what to go at least one step further this year.

What did we learn from today’s encounter? St Mary’s by their own admission weren’t at their best but still got the result they needed to finish in first place; St Mary’s have bridged the gap to the contenders at the top of Junior B.

Cortown will be the next assignment, and the group will be under no illusion as to the size of that task in a fortnight’s time.

St. Mary's: Adam Byrne; Liam Lynch, John Spain, Conor O’Brien; Maithiu Brien, Dylan Bagnall , AJ. Bradshaw; Joey Greene, Tadhg Dixon (0-1); Ben Loughran, Cathal Sheridan (0-1), Caimin Hughes (0-3, 1 2P); James Lynch (C) (0-1), Sean Nulty (0-2), Andrew Brien (0-6, 5f)
Subs: Adam Craven for Conor O Brien, Sam Victory (0-1) for Nulty, Cian O Brien for Sheridan, Peter Waters, Tadhg Lynch, Eoin Jackson, Neil Floyd, Andy Everard, Peter Gogan, Kyle Mc Keown, Ruairi Condra, Robbie Callaghan

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