JMB Sportsfield Services Football A League Division 2B Round 2. Skryne 2-11, Clann na nGael 3-05

Skryne had to dig deep this evening on a wet evening in Fr McManus Park to bounce back from the concession of two early goals and claim their first victory in the A League Division 2B over a brave Clann na nGael team.

Skryne who were rooted to the bottom of the Division 2B table with two losses out of two in their opening matches, really needed a win to kickstart their campaign. While Kian Reddy opened the scoring with an early pointed free 4 minutes in, things took a turn for the worse when Clann na nGael went on the rampage scoring 2-01 in the next 10 minutes. Luke O’Brien also kept out another goal-bound effort when he dived low to his left to palm the ball around the post. John Morley and Neil Burke set about reviving Skryne from their early slumber when they hit two fine points. Clan na nGael added their second point on the quarter-hour mark. This was to be their last score of the half. Meanwhile Skryne found their mojo and hit six points without a reply to lead by one at the half-time interval. Kian Reddy set things off by pointing a free, his second of the game. Neil Burke hit a brace, the first a monster of a point after Charlie Swan won the Clan na nGael kick-out and laid the ball off to Burkey who fired over from distance. Andrew Canavan then pointed after weaving his way past a number of defenders and slotting over superbly Conor Donohoe also slalomed his way through the Gael’s defence before hitting a fine point. John Morley edged Skryne ahead in first-half injury time. Half-time: Skryne 0-09, Clann na nGael 2-02.

Skryne needed to turn the screw in the early parts of the second half, but instead, it was the Athboy men who started the second half strongest, scoring 1-03 in the third quarter without a reply from Skryne to take a commanding five-point lead. Frank Carty started and finished the move for Skryne’s first goal. Carty picked up the ball in the right-half back position. He sent the ball forward to Conor Donohoe and then made a beeline towards the Clann na nGael penalty area. Donohoe moved the ball across and found Frankie who finished the ball low to the left of the keeper to pull Skryne back to within two points of their opponents. Kian Reddy and John Morley added to Skryne’s tally to level matters and then it was that man Frank Carty again, who was lingering around the full-forward line. He picked up the ball on the left-hand side of the Clann na Gael penalty area and blasted to the net to grab the lead for Skryne. Clann na nGael pushed forward instead of the equaliser, but found the Skryne defence a hard nut to crack. Skryne held on for a deserved victory, Skryne 2-11, Clann na nGael 3-05.

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