Meath Cleaning Supplies Premier Football Championship. Division 6 – Round 2. Skryne 0-10, Summerhill 1-09

The third team have somehow managed to keep their championship campaign on schedule despite the continual weather interruptions to fixtures across the county. However, the rain was to arrive just at the start of the game and it teemed down throughout, making conditions slippy underfoot. Both teams came into this match on the back of opening-round wins in what looks to be a competitive division.

Summerhill opened the scoring with a point two minutes in. Skryne then took over the opening quarter, scoring six points in a row without a reply from Summerhill. Mark Harrington scored the opener for Skryne when he popped over from a tight angle on the right-hand side. This was followed by some excellent Skryne points from Mark Swan(0-2), Conor Donohoe (0-2) and Kian Reddy. The pick of the bunch was Conor Donohoe’s second point from wide on the right-hand side on the 13th minute when he exchanged passes with Mark Swan before striking a shot with the outside of his boot and over the bar. Despite Skryne’s dominance at this point in the game, they were guilty of leaving the back door open on several occasions and were lucky that Summerhill had left the shooting boots back in the dressing room as they left a number of good goal chances behind. The second quarter saw Summerhill ease their way back into contention as they began to tag on some scores, three points in a row,  while Skryne’s wide count began to build. Niall Morland scored a fine point on the 24th minute to give Skryne a three-point cushion, but Summerhill added another point on the stroke of halftime to reduce the deficit to just two points at the break. Half-time: Skryne 0-07, Summerhill 0-05.

Summerhill kicked off the second-half with three points in a row to snatch the lead from Skryne. Conor Donohoe equalised with his third point of the game. Skryne tacked on half a dozen wides in the third quarter as chances went a begging. Skryne were cut wide open midway through the half when a Summerhill kick-out evaded all personnel in midfield and landed into the arms of a Summerhill forward who advanced unchallenged to the edge of the Skryne penalty area. He hit a powerful shot which Luke O’Brien parried to his left, but the ball was helped in at the butt of the post by a Summerhill player to give Summerhill a three-point cushion. They added another point on the 17th minute to leave four between the sides. Skryne had a chance to reduce the deficit to just one on the 20th minute when Summerhill’s keeper fouled Jason Reddy in the penalty area. Niall Morley stepped up to take the penalty but his shot was saved by the Summerhill keeper who made up for giving away the penalty. Skryne added two points in the closing stages to narrow the gap to just two points. However, despite a late push for a goal, Summerhill held out for victory.

Fancy a flutter!! Why not play Skryne GFC’s online BLOTTO. Jackpots of up to €10,000. Click here to play.