Senior Football

Division 1 “A” League

Donaghmore / Ashbourne vs Seneschalstown

5^th March 2011 @ 7:30 PM

Referee       Cormac Reilly

HT            Donaghmore / Ashbourne            2-6            Seneschalstown            2-6

FT            Donaghmore / Ashbourne            2-10            Seneschalstown            4-10

Donaghmore / Ashbourne had  a number of players match tied because of Meath’s Under 21 game on Wednesday the 9^th, and a number of other players injured, so it was  an under -  strength senior team which took on  Seneschalstown on Saturday night.

It was a sluggish start for the home side, with Seneschalstown sprinting  1-01 ahead  within  90 seconds of the throw-in, and  clocking up a further 3 points before the home side’s first shot in anger went wide. This was followed up by a David Morgan point on 6 minutes.  This first score for Don / Ash was smartly followed by a Niall Farrell point a minute later.  The visitors resumed their occupation of the Donaghmore/Ashbourne half, putting wide a free then failing to convert a ’45. We had some fine defending from Ciarán Finn and Ciarán Ellis, but on the minus side Ian Dowd saw yellow on the 14 minute mark. The resulting free was put over for another Seneschalstown point. This was cancelled out within a minute by a fine Kevin Lanigan effort from distance, and the initiative stayed with the lads in green. A slick pass from Tony Morgan to brother David resulted in Donaghmore’s first goal swiftly followed by an Eoin Reilly goal a minute later.  A free in for Seneschalstown resulting in another point on 18 mins, with David Morgan replying on 23 minutes for the home side from yet another free. A great pass from Cathal Field to John Broderick resulted in another point on 25 minutes, and our sixth point came from a long distance effort by Kevin Lanigan on 27 minutes.  Seneschalstown came right back at Donaghmore/Ashbourne inside the last 3 minutes, registering a goal and a pointed free to leave the sides level at 2-6 apiece.

The second half was all about goal poacher extraordinaire, Joe Sheridan. Within half a minute of the break he had the ball in the net, with a point 4 minutes later. Faolán Smyth came on for Donaghmore / Ashbourne in place of Cathal Field, and Seneschalstown had their fourth goal on the 9 minute mark, followed up by a point on 14 mins to put Seneschalstown a comfortable eight points ahead. After another John Broderick point on 16 minutes, action moved yet again to the home half where we had some staunch defending before the visitors added another point to their tally on 23 minutes. Ian Dowd was withdrawn for Eoighan Riordan. A great pass from Kevin Lanigan saw a shot on goal fron David Morgan go just wide, but Donaghmore / Ashbourne maintained the pressure, with Eric Callaghan putting over a point on 25 minutes. The home side’s final score came from the recently introduced Stephen Kavanagh in the last few minutes of the encounter, but it was all about goals in the end. Score at the final whistle was 4-10 to 2-10, in Seneschalstown’s favour.

Donaghmore/Ashbourne Team:

P. Durkan; C. Finn, I. Dowd, M. Roche; C. Ellis, M. Lynch, R. Hanway; K. Lanigan (0,2) , T. Morgan,  E. Callaghan (0,1) , E. Reilly (1,0), C. Field, J. Broderick  (0,2), N. Farrell ( 0,1) , D. Morgan (1,2 – 1-f) . 

Subs: F. Smyth for Field, E. Riordan for Dowd, S Kavanagh (0,1)  for Hanway