Skryne Reach Last Four
Skryne 1-11 Summerhill 0-09
Senior Football Championship. Quarter-Final
Skryne have reached the semi-finals of the Meath SFC for the first time since 2010. In a highly entertaining game played in Ashbourne this evening they had a five point win against a more physical Summerhill outfit. The conditions for the game were dry but with a difficult cross wind that didn’t help either team. Summerhill started the match much better than Skryne and scored the first two points of the game before Mark Battersby settled the Blues with a nice point and Patrick O’Rourke edged them ahead the first two of his six point tally. It was an evenly contested first half with the difference between the sides being Eoin Smyth’s goal for Skryne just before half time after some excellent play by Darragh Campion when he carried the ball through the Hills defence and had his shot for goal blocked. The ball broke well for Eoin and he blasted the ball to the roof of the Summerhill net. The Hill scored a point from a forty five on the stroke of half time to leave it at the break – Skryne 1-05 Summerhill 0-05.
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The second half proved to be just as close as the first with no quarter asked or given but Referee David Coldrick kept a tight rein on the game and never let it get out of hand. He did have one vital call to make when Summerhill scored a ‘goal’ after the ball was floated into the square from a line ball. Unfortunately the kicker had moved onto the field of play while taking the kick and after a little persuasion from the Skryne players and officials the score was disallowed when the referee consulted his linesman. Thankfully there was an official linesman (or assistant referee to give him his proper title) appointed, unlike Skryne’s SFC game against Rathkenny last Sunday when the full game was played with no linesman at all. Fortunately there was no controversy in that game or there could have been trouble for the County Committee to deal with.
As stated the second half of this game was very close and the Skryne defence stood very strong against a talented Summerhill forward division. All six of them were in superb form with Tómas McKeown having his best game in a blue jersey and Mark Jordan solid as a rock. Midfield was a real battleground with the Blues just shading it while upfront Stephen O’Brien powered into the game until injury forced him off as it did to McKeown also. But no game these days is won with just fifteen players and the subs who came on for Skryne continued the good work of the players they replaced.
Summerhill finished the match strongly but couldn’t get the scores needed and Eoghan Greene typified the Skryne determination with a goal saving last gasp block to deny them a grandstand finish and Felim O’Rourkes long kick-outs relieved the pressure all through.
The large crowd got good value for their money on this occasion as the result was in the melting pot right up to the final whistle.
Skryne – Felim O’Rourke. Eoghan Greene, Ciaran Lenehan, Mark Jordan. Tómas McKeown, Donie Ryan, Niall Lenehan. Aidan Tuite (0-1), Harry Rooney. Eoin Smyth (1-0), Darragh Campion, Stephen O’Brien. Bryan Davis (0-1), Patrick O’Rourke (0-6), Mark Battersby (0-1).
Subs used – Conor O’Brien (0-2), Paddy Fox and Declan Morley.
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