St. Colmcilles 0-12 Skryne 5-11

On a beautiful but cold day in Piltown, Skryne took to the field against the Cilles for Round 4 of the A League without the services of Meath panelists Harry Rooney and Eoghan Greene while the men from Laytown/Bettystown welcomed back Graham Reilly and Ben Brennan to their lineup.

The men from Skryne started off slowly as the Cilles bossed the opening exchanges scoring the first 2 points of the game and registering 2 early wides as Skryne found it hard to find the right gear. Robbie Clarke kickstarted Skryne when he broke up a Cilles attack on the Skryne 21 yard line and set off up the field on a Skryne counter attack. Following a series of passes, corner-back Clarke who ran the length of the pitch to get on the end of the Skryne move, found himself racing in on the Cilles goal where he finished expertly to the net for Skryne's opening score of the game. Ben Brennan, Colmcilles best player, pointed twice more while Paddy O'Rourke got a single for Skryne to leave the sides level at 0-04 to 1-01 at the midway point of the half. Skryne then took control of the match with 2 quick-fire goals from half-back Paddy Carpenter and the big man corner-forward Ian Davis. They followed this with 4 points in a row from Darragh Campion, Paddy O' Rourke, Mark Battersby and Ian Davis. Skryne had opened up a ten point lead and worse was still to come for the Cilles as Paddy O' Rourke bagged a brace of goals late in the half to kill off any chance of a Cilles revival. Cilles did tag on 3 points before the end of the half with Mark Battersby adding his second of the match to leave the half time score St. Colmcilles 0-07, Skryne 5-06 (21pts).

As the second half commenced the Cilles men pushed forward looking for an early goal to jumpstart their comeback. However, the Skryne defence which has been rock solid in the early part of the league, held firm yet again and denied the Cilles with some tigerish defending particularly from man of the match Robbie Clarke. Despite the early pressure, Cilles only managed to convert a solitary point in the opening 10 minutes of the half and that came from the boot of talisman Graham Reilly. Skryne opened their account with a point from Paddy O' Rourke. Skryne almost bagged a sixth goal on the 17th minute when Bryan Davis sent a delicious ball into the square which was punched goal-ward by Paddy O'Rourke who was denied by a superb point-blank save from the Cilles goal-keeper. The sides traded scores for the remainder of the game with Ian Davis, Paddy O'Rourke, Eoin Smyth and sub Jason Fox all adding to Skryne's tally, while Cilles welcomed back James Conlan who was returning from injury and was Cilles most impressive player in the second half bagging 3 points in a fine cameo. Cilles will be delighted to have this talented young man back for the rest of their season. Final Score: St. Colmcilles 0-12, Skryne 5-11.

Skryne: Ian Gillett; Robbie Clarke, Mark Harrington, Declan Morley; Paddy Carpenter, Donie Ryan, Eoin Smyth; Michael Doherty, Ciarán Lenehan; Conor O' Brien, Mark Battersby, Darragh Campion, Ian Davis, Paddy O'Rourke, Bryan Davis

Subs: Stephen O'Brien, Jason Fox, Kevin Reilly, Timmy Lennon and David McGoldrick

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