The “D” for Danger men of Donaghmore Ashbourne’s fourth team made the short trip to Ratoath on Saturday evening to try to preserve their unbeaten run in this Championship against Seneschalstown. They did so fairly comfortably to emerge victorious on a score line of Donaghmore Ashbourne 3-11, Seneschalstown 2-9. This was despite being five points in arrears after the opening twenty minutes.

Seneschalstown opened the scoring after five minutes when one of their forwards was allowed to run straight through the middle of the Donaghmore Ashbourne defence. This lead was short-lived as Declan Mulvey opened his account with a converted free from twenty five meters out. An excellent point restored Seneschalstown’s lead until this too was cancelled out when Brian Fitzgerald’s clever pass found John Mc Leenon in space and he converted the opportunity. Seneschalstown struck for a goal when an exceptionally high bounce of the ball caught out Sean Robinson at full-back and left the full-forward free inside. A superb pass from Sean Benville picked out the unmarked Mulvey on the edge of the square and he blasted to the net to restore parity. Three unanswered points saw Seneschalstown go three clear again before Mulvey pulled one back with another converted free. Terry Bruton in goal for Donaghmore Ashbourne had already escaped punishment when advancing from his line to collide with corner-back, Michael Mc Cabe, who incidentally had a superb game all through. When he repeated the error he was not as fortunate as the Seneschalstown forward gratefully tapped the loose ball into the empty net. Five points behind and struggling to win possession in the middle things did not look good for Donaghmore Ashbourne. Another Mulvey free was quickly followed by a well-taken goal from Mc Leenon before Donaghmore Ashbourne were gifted another goal when an attempted point from Tom Dreaper fell into the Seneschalstown net. This stroke of fortune saw Donaghmore Ashbourne to the half time break with a two point advantage, 3-4 to 2-5.

Seneschalstown had a point scored within twenty seconds of the restart to reduce the deficit to the minimum. Unfortunately for them, they did not score again for a half an hour. During this time Donaghmore Ashbourne took complete control of the game. A wonderful individual point from Cormac Fagan swiftly followed by another pointed free from Mulvey saw Donaghmore Ashbourne go three clear for the first time in the game. Hayden Devoy replaced the struggling Ross Tormey. A pinpoint pass from Dreaper saw Fitzgerald stretch the lead to four. Eoin Caffrey and Breffni Conaty replaced the hard-working Sean Smith and Sean Benville with just a quarter of the game left. Sean Robinson provided one of the highlights of the game when he travelled the long journey from full back, cleverly exchanging passes along the way to finish with a wonderful point from play. A great solo effort from Mulvey and a classy point from distance by Danny Clarke after twenty five minutes saw the game all but over as a contest. Matty Davis and Podge Williams came on for Mc Gleenon and Clarke. Fitzgerald completed the scoring for Donaghmore Ashbourne in the twenty-ninth minute with another sweetly struck point. Seneschalstown finally woke up to the second half and managed to record three quick points from play. But for a superb block by Eoin Caffrey one of these points could well have been a goal.

Dunsany and Donaghmore Ashbourne both sit atop this group with three wins from three outings. They both look set to qualify for the quarter-finals with the game between them set to determine who actually tops the group. On a final note, it was great to see Jason Mc Cann back in a Donaghmore Ashbourne shirt after a too-long absence. Welcome back Jay.

Team: 1. Terry Bruton; 2. Michael Mc Cabe, 3. Sean Robinson(0-1), 4. Niall Moran; 5. Gareth Deery, 6. Sean Smith, 7. Jason Mc Cann; 8. Tom Dreaper(1-0), 9. Danny Clarke(0-1); 10. Ross Tormey, 11. Sean Benville, 12. Cormac Fagan(0-1); 13. Brian Fitzgerald(0-2), 14. John Mc Gleenon(1-1), 15. Declan Mulvey(1-5, 0-4f).
Subs: Hayden Devoy for Tormey; Eoin Caffrey for Sean Smith; Breffni Conaty for Sean Benville; Matty Davis for John Mc Leenon; Podge Williams for Danny Clarke.