A League Division 1 - Round 3. Summerhill 2-10 Skryne 2-09

Summerhill win with last gasp point

Summerhill 2-10 Skryne 2-09

A League Division 1 – Round 3

Skryne travelled to Summerhill with a depleted squad with a long injury list that lengthened during the course of the game. Summerhill were also short a number of first team players, so the teamsheets for both teams had a very different look to the teamsheets from last year’s League semi-final. Skryne did welcome back Paddy O’ Rourke for his first game of the season after a lengthy spell out and it wasn’t long before Big P got onto the scoreboard after he got onto the end of a Harry Rooney high ball before tapping over for the opening score of the game. Summerhill levelled matters with a free from Liam Shaw. Ian Davis pointed with a fine left footed effort from the 40 after Paddy Fox had made a surging run forward before laying off to Harry Rooney who found Davis in space and he made no mistake. Summerhill got back on terms again with another Shaw free. Skryne lost Niall Lenehan to injury at the mid way point of the half to be replaced by Barry Clarke. Paddy O’Rourke added another point for Skryne, a point that was made by Colm Doherty who won the ball superbly in the Skryne defence before sending an inch perfect pass to Paddy Fox in the Skryne forward line. Fox moved the ball to O’Rourke who popped over his second and Skryne’s third point of the game. Skryne were well on top throughout the first half and a foul on David McGoldrick presented O’Rourke with a free to add to Skryne’s tally. The first half was turned on its head during a two minute spell on the 20 minute mark. Eamonn Mc Donnell converted the first of Summerhill’s two goals after a swift interchange of passes in the Summerhill inside forward line. McDonnell blasted an unstoppable shot past Ian Gillette. Less than a minute later Summerhill found the back of the net again when a high ball was launched into the Skryne penalty area. Conor Lyons seemed to be completely unmarked and slid the ball past the exposed Gillette for Summerhill’s second. A Liam Shaw pointed free added salt to the wound as Summerhill galloped into a five point lead. Paddy O’Rourke reduced the deficit with a point on 23 minutes, but this was cancelled out by Diarmaid McCabe who tapped over from the right hand side. Paddy Fox and Paddy O’Rourke dragged Skryne back into the game shortly before half time when Fox pointed before O’Rourke bagged Skryne’s first goal when finishing low past the Summerhill keeper to leave just the minimum between the teams at half-time. Half-time score: Summerhill 2-04, Skryne 1-06.

[metaslider id=18622]

Summerhill squandered a number of opportunities to extend their lead early in the second half with three wides in the opening 5 minutes of the half. Paddy O’Rourke got the first score on the board with a pointed free to draw level. Summerhill’s Kevin Ryan pointed to edge the men in blue and gold ahead once again. The influential Paddy O’Rourke was to become Skryne’s second casualty of the game when he was forced to leave the field with a leg injury following a heavy collision. Liam Shaw made no mistake with another pointed free for Summerhill as they extended their lead to two points. Mark Battersby got his name on the scoresheet with a well taken point before Ian Davis was gifted a goal opportunity by the Summerhill defence and he punished them when blasting to the back of the net to send Skryne into a two point lead. They retained this lead comfortably up until three minutes from time and looked like they had done enough to take all three points. However, Summerhill had other ideas and three quick fire points saw them take the lead as full time approached. Mark Battersby seemed to rescue a draw for Skryne when he pointed in injury time. However, there was another sting in the tail when Summerhill won the kickout and moved the ball forward. A terrific last gasp point grabbed a victory for the home side.

Skryne deserved something from this game and will be disappointed not to have held on for a victory or even a draw. Worse still is the ever increasing injury list.

Skryne – Ian Gillett. Niall Lenehan, Mark Harrington, James Hegarty. Stephen O’Brien, Ronan McCabe, Eoin Smyth. David McGoldrick, Harry Rooney. Colm Doherty, Ian Davis (1-1), Paddy Fox (0-1). Mark Battersby (0-2), Paddy O’Rourke(1-5, 2f), Jason Reddy.

Subs used – Barry Clarke, Craig Nolan, Niall Morley, John Morley.