Meath Cleaning Supplies Premier Football Championship. Division 6 – Round 1. Skryne 3-12, Navan O’ Mahonys 0-11

What looked set to be a busy weekend of club football was decimated once again by the weather which claimed both of Friday night’s A League fixtures due to unplayable pitches. So it was down to the third team to fly the flag for the Skryne men in their opening Premier Championship Division 6 game against old rivals Navan O’Mahonys.

The game was played in front of a small band of spectators who were treated to a game of high quality and entertainment on a perfect morning for football. O’Mahonys had the brighter of the opening exchanges with Derek Loughran helping himself to a brace of points inside the opening 3 minutes of play. Ciarán Finnerty, the veteran of Skryne’s team, was proving a difficult adversary for the O’Mahonys defence as he fought for and won possession in the full forward line, chipping in with Skryne’s opening score after receiving a nice pass from Niall Morland. Fiachra McGabhann added a third point for the Brews Hill men on the eighth minute. Skryne had settled into the game at this stage and began to boss proceedings adding three points without a reply to edge ahead for the first time in the game. The scores all from play came from Craig Nolan, Kian Reddy and Mark Swan. Another good Skryne move saw James Reeves find Ciarán Quinn in space in front of the O’Mahony’s goal. Quinn turned and struck a good shot which was smothered by O’Mahony’s keeper Brien Yourell. Skryne did reap their reward for their period of dominance when they poached a goal midway through the half. A Ciarán Quinn free struck the post and dropped into the penalty area. Tommy Carpenter was quickest to react grabbing the ball and hammering it into the back of the O’Mahony’s net. Ciarán Quinn, who had a fine game slotted over another point for Skryne who had now opened up a 5 point lead. Ciarán McGuinness and Craig Nolan traded scores and Kian Reddy added his second point of the game to extend Skryne’s lead to 6. In the last 5 minutes of the half, Skryne fell back into sleep mode and allowed O’Mahonys to peg back the lead to just 3 at half time with Riordán Russell, Ciarán McGuinness and Henry Finnegan(a free) all finding the target. Half-time: Skryne 1-07, Navan O’Mahonys 0-07.

It was Skryne who started the brighter in the second half with the two Ciarán’s, Finnerty and Quinn, adding to their tallies to increase Skryne’s lead. Derek Loughran hit his third point and then Henry Finnegan pointed another free as O’Mahonys looked to regain a foothold in the game. This was thwarted by by Skryne who continued to turn the screw with Ciarán Quinn firing over a free and Mark Swan adding his second to see Skryne lead by 5 midway through the second half. Kian Reddy extended the lead to 6 with just over ten minutes to go, but then O’Mahonys were awarded a penalty when Kevin Ryan was adjudged to have been fouled in the Skryne penalty area. Henry Finnegan stepped up to take the penalty but saw his shot superbly pushed around the post by Skryne’s keeper Luke O’Brien. Barry McEvoy did poach a point for O’Mahonys. A goal from Seán Cassidy with 3 minutes of normal time remaining secured the win for Skryne. Conor Donohoe had made an excellent run up the middle of the park before hitting a fine ball into Cassidy on the edge of the small parellelogram. Cassidy collected and made no mistake firing past the O’Mahony’s keeper. Henry Finnegan added a consolation point for O’Mahonys in injury time. However, Skryne still had time to add the cherry on top of the icing on the cake when Oisín Coyle won a free wide on the right hand side. Ciarán Quinn took the free and launched the ball into the O’Mahony’s penalty area where Ciarán Fox got a fist on it to redirect it to midfielder Robert Gallagher who had made a run into the penalty area from deep. Gallagher hit an unstoppable shot past Brien Yourell to give Skryne a well deserved victory. Full-time: Skryne 3-12, Navan O’Mahonys 0-11.

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