Junior A Football Championship. Grp C - Rnd 5. Skryne 1-09, Summerhill 3-08

Skryne 1-09 Summerhill 3-08

Junior A Football Championship, Group C – Round 5

Skryne lost out to Summerhill in this JF Championship match played in well appointed Dunsany last evening (Saturday) and therefore left themselves with a mountain to climb in order to make the knockout stages.

The second half of this match took fifty three and a half minutes to complete due to a serious head injury to Skryne forward Jason Reddy which resulted in Referee Eamon Barry stalling the game until the unlucky Jason was removed by Ambulance to Blanchardstown hospital. Thankfully he was released from hospital late last night and we wish him a speedy recovery.

The difficulty of playing 3 important Championship games in 8 days was brought home to all concerned when Skryne had to field without 3 players – Mark Harrington, Niall Lenehan and Barry Clarke who were all injured in Tuesday’s win over Gaeil Colmcille – and Niall Morley who was out of the country. Add in injuries last night to Jason Reddy and Dermot Brennan and it’s obvious the Blues will have a very depleted squad for next Wednesday’s match versus favourites Dunboyne.

Summerhill began this match with all guns blazing and had the ball in the net for the first score of the game after 2 minutes. Skryne recovered from this setback and for the next 20 minutes or so gave as good as they got and had the score at 1-3 to 0-3 when disaster struck again with Summerhill’s second goal. Felim O’Rourkes kick out found Dermot Brennan who was unceremoniously upended and with Skryne calling ‘foul’ the Hill carried on and put the ball in the net and a Skryne player being booked for protesting. Again Skryne recovered somewhat and scored 3 good points from Allan Carty, Jason Reddy and Jason Fox to leave the half score – Summerhill 2-4 Skryne 0-6.
Skryne playing into the scoring goals at the Pavilion end began the second half on top and points from Kevin O’Reilly and Darren Fox had them within touching distance of the Hill.

Then came the long delay of nearly 25 minutes for the injury meaning the remainder of the game was played with the light declining and on a greasy surface making it difficult for both teams. Once again Summerhill’s third ‘deflected’ goal, which left Felim stranded, gave them breathing space and even though Skryne fought hard with Allan Carty adding a goal and a point to their tally the 5 point winning margin for Summerhill may have been just about right.
Skryne never reached the heights of their midweek win over Kells and with 2 games remaining now have a difficult task ahead.

Skryne – Felim O’Rourke. Sean Byrne, Timmy Lennon, David Carroll. Frank Carty, Dermot Brennan, Keith Donoghue. Aidan Tuite, Darren Fox (0-1). Jason Fox (0-1), Colm Doherty,James Hegarty. Kevin O’Reilly (0-1), Allan Carty (1-3), Jason Reddy (0-3).
Subs – Ciaran Finnerty, Neil Burke, Tommy Carpenter, Sean Cassidy and Kieran O’Rourke.