Skryne edge Trim with dramatic late winner
Skryne 1-09, Trim 1-08
Meath Cleaning Supplies Premier Football Championship. Division 1, Group A – Round 2.
Skryne Juniors faced Trim in the second round of Group A in the Premier Football Championship in Skryne this morning. Both sides suffered opening-round defeats in this group, with Dunshaughlin getting the better of Skryne while Ratoath were victors over Trim. The squads for both teams were significantly depleted due to the clash with the Senior Championship this weekend. The game itself was entertaining, but the shooting from both sides was poor throughout as illustrated by the low final score. Overall, Skryne were the better team and were leading by 4 points at the end of normal time. However, a late rally from Trim saw bag a goal and a point to level the game in injury time before Skryne launched one last attack up along the right-hand side touchline and won a free. Trim would have been reasonably satisfied that the free was quite far out and was hugging the sideline. Veteran Felim O’Rourke had other ideas as he stepped up and hit a huge kick which split the posts to snatch a well-deserved victory for Skryne in a dramatic finalé.
The weather was reasonably good aside from a stiff breeze blowing towards the scoreboard end. The pitch was in excellent condition and Trim had the benefit of the breeze in the opening half. The wind was clearly a factor with a number of early shots going wide of the mark. Trim finally got the scoreboard moving 7 minutes into the game when Brian McKeown slotted over the first point of the game. Skryne had an excellent opportunity for a goal in the ninth minute after Seán McCarthy was pulled down inside the penalty area and Skryne were awarded a penalty. Darren Fox stepped up and hit a powerful effort to the right-hand side, but the keeper dived across and managed to parry it out for a 45. Luke O’Brien made the long trip up the pitch to take the 45 and despite a short run-up and facing into the aforementioned breeze, he converted the 45 with ease. Skryne took the lead a minute later when Robert Gallagher received the ball from the excellent Darren Fox who was dominating possession up front for Skryne. Gallagher turned on a sixpence to the left of the Trim goal and fired the ball to the back of the Trim net. Fox added a point for Skryne a minute later after good work from Cillian Moss. Trim fought back with Robbie Kenny hitting 2 points before Neil Burke fired over for Skryne. Seán Foley and Evan Collins added to Trim’s tally while Kian Reddy pointed a free for Skryne to see them lead by 1-4 to 0-5 at half-time.
Felim O’Rourke entered the fray at half-time and immediately began to cause trouble for the Trim defence, opening the scoring with a point 2 minutes into the half. Kian Reddy added another from a free before Neil Burke hit his second of the game after some great work from Timmy Lennon and Seán Cassidy in the Skryne defence where they won possession before Cassidy picked out Burkey with a fine pass up field. Burkey swapped passes with Kian Reddy before launching a shot between the uprights from wide on the right-hand side to put Skryne 5 points ahead. A pointed free each from Robbie Kenny and Seán Foley saw Trim edge closer. Neil Burke hit his third to keep Trim at arms length as the game reached the end of normal time. However, Trim replied with a point in the first minute of injury time and this was quickly followed by a goal from Seán Foley who danced around the small parallelogram before dispatching to the Skryne net to level the game. Skryne looked like they had thrown the game away until they got the ball forward and won the free which led to the dramatic late Felim O’Rourke point deep in injury time as Skryne snatched a victory that should have been much more comfortable. Final score: Skryne 1-09, Trim 1-08.
Skryne had excellent performances from Mark Swan, Darren Fox and Felim O’Rourke with many other good performances around the pitch.
Skryne: Luke O’Brien(0-1, 1 x 45); Cillian Moss, Timmy Lennon, Seán McCarthy; Stephen Corry, David Carroll, Mark Swan; David McGoldrick, Robert Gallagher(1-0); Jason Reddy, Neil Burke(0-3), Kian Reddy(0-2, 2fs); Seán Cassidy, Darren Fox(0-1), Ciarán Fox
Subs used: Craig Nolan, Felim O’Rourke (0-2, 1f), Oisín Coyle
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