Favourites have six to spare over Skryne
Bective 1-12 Skryne 1-06
Junior A Football Championship. Group B, Round 1
Skryne fielded a weakened team in this first round of the Junior football championship for a number of reasons. As a result of the Seniors being without three injured players that had to be replaced therefore depriving the Juniors of three of their strongest players. Add to that two players were involved in the clubs ‘Strictly come Dancing’ on the same evening and two Meath minor players who were not allowed play on Saturday.
Nevertheless the team played well for most of the game after having a nightmare start to the match which was switched from Slane to Castletown. Bective had the ball in the Skryne net from their very first attack in the first minute. They added a point almost immediately and Skryne had an uphill task from then on. However they fought back strongly and a well worked team goal involving Paddy Doherty, Paddy Fox, Ronan McCabe and finished expertly by Allan Carty gave the Blues a great boost midway through this first half. From then until half time it was nip and tuck with just two points between the sides at the break Bective 1-7 Skryne 1-5.
The second half began brightly for Skryne and a David Lynch point in the first minute left just the minimum between the teams and Skryne seemingly on top at this stage of the game. Unfortunately that was as good as it got for the Tara men and they failed to score for the remainder of the hour. They did have their chances and Lynch hit the post with the goalkeeper well beaten after 15 minutes of the half when Bective were just two points ahead. Skryne also had a few bad wides in this period as their accuracy let them down. A feature of the game was that all of Skryne’s scores came from play while Bective had five of their points from placed balls.
Having said all that Bective were the stronger and better team on this occasion and fully deserved their victory.
Skryne – Felim O’Rourke. Vinny O’Reilly, Martin Mulvaney, Eoghan Greene. James Looby, Mark Harrington, Dermot Brennan. David McGoldrick, Paddy Doherty. Allan Carty (1-1), Paddy Fox, David Lynch (0-1). Jason Fox (0-2) Ronan McCabe (0-1) Kevin O’Reilly (0-1).
Subs used – Michael Doherty, Darren Fox, Sean Cassidy and John Quinn.