SFC Group C: Cilles cool champions' gallop
August 27, 2023
St. Colmcille's Shaun Leonard with Sean Brazil Ratoath during the Meath SFC round 3 clash at Pairc Tailteann
St Colmcille's sprung a big surprise when fending off the challenge of champions Ratoath at Pairc Tailteann on Sunday afternoon.
St Colmcille's .......... 2-10
Ratoath .................. 0-10
The outcome was of more significance to the Cilles who top this group and advance to the knockout stage with confidence.
Slow to start Jody Devine's men were hugely lifted by Matthew Breen's 11th minute goal. They hit the front in the 15th minute, thanks to a brace of James Conlon's frees.
They took that lead to the finish helped by sterling defending that denied Ratoath the goal they needed to revive them.
Ratoath's top scorer Daithi McGowan was first to point in the second-half, reducing the gap to two.
That was as close as the Keegan Cup holders got to the team representing Laytown, Bettystown and Julianstown.
The next crucial moment occured when David Bell goaled with aplomb at the town end in the 14th minute. It left the board reading 2-6 to 0-7.
Ratoath were playing catch-up thereafter, but were unable to match the energy of the underdogs.
Daithi McGowan almost goaled twice for Ratoath. First, he was denied by Adam Lynch's 34th minute goalline interception. Then in stoppage time but his punched effort went wide.
Ratoath burst from the blocks with four points in the opening six minutes. It took Daithi McGowan 16 seconds to fire over at the town end. Conor Rooney, Jack Flynn and Daithi McGowan completed that sequence.
Ratoath - despite being favoured by the breeze - only managed two more points over the rest of the half.
St Colmcille's got a big break in the 11th minute when Matthew Breen took capitalised on slackness in the Ratoath defence to fist David O'Byrne's delivery to the Ratoath net.
The east Meath side outscored the champions by 0-6 to 0-2 over the remainder of the half while two points was as close Ratoath got to the outsiders before half-time.
McGowan (free) closed the first-half scoring to leave his team trailing 0-6 to 1-6 at half-time.
Scorers: St Colmcille's - David Bell 1-3 (0-2fs); James Conlon 0-5 (3fs); Matthew Breen 1-0; Shaun Leonard (mark); 0-1; Andrew Beakey 0-1 (f).
Ratoath - Daithi McGowan 0-5 (2fs); Keith McCabe 0-1; Liam Kelly 0-1; Jack Flynn 0-1; Eamon Wallace 0-1 (f); Conor Rooney 0-1.
St Colmcille's - Andrew Beakey; Godfrey Ehichoya, Hugo Collins, Adam Lynch; Shaun Leonard, Ben Brennan, Liam Stafford; Jeff Kavanagh, Ruairi O'Grady; Matthew Breen, Carl Mullan, Cathal Hilliard (c); David Bell, David O'Byrne, James Conlon. Subs - Graham Reilly for Kavanagh (48), Christian Finlay for O'Grady (53), Sean O'Donoghue for Stafford (57), Stephen Breen for M Breen (60 + 1).
Ratoath - Cian O'Farrell; Liam Kelly, Sean Brazil, Ben Wyer; Brian O'Connor, Keith McCabe, Brian Daly; Jack Flynn, Bobby O'Brien; Padraig Byrne, Conor Rooney, Eamon Wallace; Daithi McGowan, Bryan McMahon, Ronan Byrne. Subs - Ciaran O Fearraigh for McMahon (11), Jack Gillespie for Rooney (42), Fionn Drummond for P Byrne (51), Callum Brady for Daly (54).
Referee - Cormac Reilly (St Mary's).
