Pats ruin the party in Skryne
Skryne 2-09, St. Patricks 1-13
A League Division 1 – Round 8
With 20 minutes gone in the second half of this Senior A League game in sunny Skryne, news filtered through that the Skryne Under 14s had won their Division 1 Final in Pairc Tailteann. The small gathering of Skryne supporters present were delighted with the news and were hopeful that a comeback in the Senior game would put the icing on the cake. At this point, the Seniors were 5 points down in Skryne but a miraculous escape seemed on the cards as Skryne had the 14 men of St. Pats on the backfoot. The score was 1-12 to 1-06 in favour of the Pats. Niall Morley pulled one back for Skryne as they continued to press the stubborn Pats rearguard. A free from Neil Burke reduced the deficit before Skryne won a penalty, their second of the game with 4 minutes left on the clock. Mark Jordan having seen his effort saved in the first half was happy to allow on form Burkey take over the penalty taking duties and he dispatched the penalty with some aplomb to the back of the Pats net. He followed this up with the equalising point 2 minutes from time and Skryne had the momentum to go on and win this game. However, having lost possession for the umpteenth time in this game, Pats counterattacked and fired a ball towards the Skryne goal. Ian Gillett fielded the ball well but under severe pressure from 2 Pats players found his effort to clear the ball blocked by the onrushing Pats forward who cooly slotted the ball over the bar to snatch the victory for the Pats.
In truth Skryne were slightly the better team in the opening half but still found themselves 4 points down at half-time. A total of seven first half wides coupled with lost chances due to misplaced passes were the main reasons for this . To be fair to the Pats, they defended superbly throughout and were quick to funnel men back behind the ball when they were without possession. Once they won possession they broke forward at pace and their number 11 was proving to be a slippery character throughout the half and indeed scored a fine goal when he received the ball out near the midfield and dashed forward with purpose, weaving one way and then another before unleashing an unstoppable effort past Fridge into the back of the Skryne net in only the second minute of the game. Niall Morley and Neil Burke pointed for Skryne before a pointed effort from Ciarán Lenehan dropped short into the goalmouth where Niall Morley was on hand to scramble it into the back of the Pats net. Despite this setback, Pats were to go on and score the next 7 points in a row without a reply from Skryne(despite plenty of efforts on goal). Batts finally got the scoreboard moving again with 2 points in the 23rd and 26th minutes to reduce the deficit to 3 points. Ciarán Lenehan had a chance to equalise but his goal-bound shot was saved by the keeper. However, the referee awarded a penalty to Skryne for a late challenge on Leno and gave Skryne an opportunity to make up for the missed goal chance. Sproggy stepped up cool as a cucumber and sent his penalty low to the left of the keeper. The keeper had guessed the right way and got down well to push the shot away. Pats finished off the scoring with a pointed free in first half stoppage time to leave the half-time score Skryne 1-04, St. Patricks 1-08.
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Skryne came back out onto the pitch in the second half without talisman Ciarán Lenehan who had picked up an injury and was unable to continue. He was replaced by Donie Ryan in the middle of the park. The second half was evenly contested in the early parts with both sides swapping scores. Neil Burke got his second of the game while the Pats full forward got one for himself. St. Pats influential centre forward deservedly got his marching orders 7 minutes into the second half when after losing possession and conceding a free, he foolishly lashed out at one of the Skryne players who was preparing to take the free. This started a minor scuffle between the players close to the incident, before referee Patrick Melia managed to extract the guilty party from the mayhem and sent him on his way. Despite this incident, the game was played in good spirits and both teams continued to press. Skryne’s Mark Battersby’s pointed effort richocheted off the post and out wide. Bryan Davis bagged his only point of the game midway through the half before the Pats pegged on 3 more to stretch their lead to 5. It was then that the Skryne fightback began.
Overall, Skryne will be disappointed with the amount of mistakes they made in this game and also the amount of misplaced passes. At times Skryne laboured in possession and this allowed Pats to get players back into defensive positions, thereby creating a near impenetrable wall. However, it should be noted that Skryne still have at least half a team sidelined at the moment for some reason or other and they fought to the very end to get something from this game but alas it wasn’t to be. Best on the night for Skryne were Neil Burke and Niall Morley.
Skryne: Ian Gillett; Declan Morley, Mark Harrington, Mark Jordan; Ronan McCabe, Niall Lenehan, Dermot Brennan; Aidan Tuite, Ciarán Lenehan; Neil Burke, Patrick Fox, Bryan Davis; Jason Fox, Mark Battersby, Niall Morley.
Subs Used: Donie Ryan, David Lynch
