Minor Town League Rd. 3
Na Gaeil/Ballymac 0-04 Austin Stacks 1-13
On a rotten evening (Fri, 15th Feb), weather wise, for football both sides played at times as if conditions were ideal, such was the intensity and skill displayed on a very heavy pitch. Thanks to the O’Rahillys Club for making their facilities at Healy Park available when other venues were deemed unplayable.
Great combination play saw Niall O’Carroll Cane put Sean Ryan through for our first point just inside a minute of play, in this 3rd round of the Town League. This was followed a minute later by a Kyle Fitzgibbon point. But by the 5th minute the opposition were back in it with a pointed free.
The rest of the half however was dominated by our boys with Aidan McQuinn and Shane Walsh lording the centre and Kyle Fitzgibbon in particular unerring both from play and frees putting over five more (two frees) before the short whistle, with Barry Walsh and Sean Dukes scoring our other two.
Na Gaeil/Ballymac added two late points to leave us ahead at half time by 0-9 to 0-3.
With conditions deteriorating by the minute the second half was less intense. The opposition pressed hard in the opening ten minutes which yielded a point. But our second half substitutes brought some freshness to our display and further points resulted from Kyle Fitzgibbon and Sean Ryan, and then half way through the half the game was really put to bed when Sean Dukes struck for the only goal of the game and his second of the competition.
Ciaran Flanagan (introduced in the 37th minute) put over a minute later, but the last score was arguably the best score of the game when wing back, Colin Griffin, raced upfield and, on the run, put over a beauty from about 30m out.
Another brilliant team performance by our lads with wing forward Shane Greensmyth outstanding.
Team: Brian Horgan, Anthony Moynihan, Eoghan McKivergan, Sam Nealon, Jack Kenny, Dylan Hartnett, Colin Griffin (0-1), Aidan McQuinn, Barry Walsh (0-1), Timothy Murphy, Sean Ryan (0-2), Shane Greensmyth, Niall O’Carroll Cane, Kyle Fitzgibbon (0-7 – 2f), Sean Dukes (1-1).
Subs: Sean Hurley (ht), Ciaran Flanagan (37m) (0-1), Jessie O’Sullivan (39m), James Galvin (45m).
With one more game to play (against Mitchels) the Town League now takes a break for a few weeks while the Co. League takes over. And our first game is away against the aforementioned Mitchels and it’s scheduled for Saturday week (23rd Feb).