Fairyhouse Steel Senior Football Championship. Quarter-final. Summerhill 2-19 Skryne 0-08

Skryne bow out of Championship

Summerhill 2-19 Skryne 0-08

Fairyhouse Steel Senior Football Championship. Quarter-Final.

A disappointing second-half performance from Skryne saw them bow out of the championship against a strong Summerhill team.

After a shaky opening 10 minutes in this SFC quarter-final in which Summerhill hit four points without a reply, Skryne looked to have settled when Ciáran Lenehan burst forward from his centre-half-back position and side-footed a monstrous point from the 40-metre line to kick-start a spluttering Skryne. A Niall Finnerty pointed free reduced the deficit to two points. Summerhill’s captain Padhraig Geraghty popped up on the right-hand side and slotted over, before Darragh Campion hit a delicious pass with the outside of his boot to Mark Battersby in the left corner. Batts swivelled and fired over an excellent point. Harry Rooney then won possession on the stand side of the pitch. He glided past four Summerhill players before off-loading to Darragh Campion who hit a nice point from the 30-metre line. 23 minutes in, Niall Finnerty slipped a beautiful pass into Oisín Keogh in front of the Summerhill goal. Keogh pivoted and then hit a powerful low left-footed shot towards the bottom right corner which struck the post and away to safety.  Conor Lyons added another free for Summerhill. With 3 minutes remaining in the half, Skryne worked the ball up the pitch to Oisín Keogh on the right-hand side. He laid off to Patrick Fox who slotted over to leave just a single point between the sides. A minute later, Mark Battersby won possession in the left corner. He passed to John Finnerty who was making a run in towards the Summerhill goal. Finnerty let fly with a rasper of a shot which rattled the crossbar and away to a Summerhill defender. Summerhill immediately counter-attacked and Eoghan Frayne opened his account with a point from play. A fifth pointed free from David Lyons saw the ‘Hill lead by 0-8 to 0-5 at the half-time interval.

Skryne were still well in the running at half-time and maybe could have been ahead had it not been for the missed goal chances. However, a blistering opening 5 minutes in the second half from Summerhill where they scored 1-3,  effectively killed off the Skryne challenge. A pointed free from that man Conor Lyons opened the second half scoring. They added another point from play before half-time substitute John Lavelle got on the end of a Summerhill attack, finding enough space in front of the Skryne goal to get a shot off that found it’s way into the back of the Skryne net. Conor Frayne added another point for the ‘Hill and Skryne were left reeling. Summerhill added four more points to extend their lead to 13 points by the end of the third quarter. Skryne finally got off the mark on the 16th minute of the half when Niall Finnerty slotted over a free from the right-hand side. He added a second pointed free a minute later, but then Summerhill found the net again when big midfielder Adam Flanagan finished a fine Summerhill move. Summerhill hit another four points without a reply as Skryne’s challenge was extinguished. A late point from Mark Battersby did little to numb the pain of a disappointing defeat which didn’t reflect the hard work and quality this team has shown throughout the year.

On the plus side, Skryne remain at the top table for another year. This year was their 85th successive year playing Senior Championship football and they will ply their trade in the Senior Championship again next year where many of our young squad will get a chance to use the experience of playing championship football this year to develop into a team that can perhaps go further in their quest for more silverware to add to their magnificent victory in the All-Ireland Kilmacud Crokes 7s tournament.

Skryne: Ian Gillett; Eoghan Greene, Niall Lenehan, David Carroll; Frank Carty, Ciarán Lenehan(0-1), John Finnerty; Harry Rooney, Oisín Keogh; Patrick Fox(0-1), Darragh Campion(0-1), Stephen O’Brien; Niall Finnerty(0-3, 3fs), Padraig Finnerty, Mark Battersby(0-2).

Subs used: Shane Smyth, Conor O’Brien, Kristoffer Kinsella, Timmy Lennon, Neil Burke