Reserve Cup, Division 1. Group B – Round 1. Dunshaughlin 0-07 Skryne 1-06

The scoreline suggests a bore-fest, but this game could not be categorised as that. Both teams took the opportunity to field new young players in the adult football ranks. The average age of Skryne’s starting line-up was just 20 years of age. Five of the starting line-up were 17 years of age. None showed any fear and produced some excellent football throughout. This was the story of the day as most clubs are struggling with player drop-off around this age group so it is great to see these lads getting the opportunity and grasping it with both hands. 

With this being the first game of the season, both sides were showing some rustiness in front of goal and the wides would outweigh the scoreline by the end of the game. Through a combination of poor shooting and good defending from Skryne, particularly from the full-back line of Ben Armstrong, Jack Dardis(who was showing excellent form yesterday on his return from injury) and Riain McConnell, Dunshaughlin were only able to register a single point in the first half. The wind was also a factor as it seemed to favour Dunshaughlin but was swirling around somewhat and so was difficult to judge what direction to hit the ball. Billy Reilly was on fire in the opening half, defending excellently and attacking forward at every opportunity. Indeed he could have had a few points but for some wayward shooting. Conor Donohoe is another who enjoyed an excellent first-half and looks to be a very promising young player. Dunshaughlin got their point on the 10th minute when they sent over a free.  Skryne opened their account in the 18th minute after that man Billy Reilly scrambled for possession against 2 Dunshaughlin players near the left-hand touchline. He won the ball and gave it to Seán Cassidy who laid it off to Craig Nolan. Craig looked to be shooting for a point, but his shot dropped just underneath the crossbar and into the Dunshaughlin net. Niall Morley added to Skryne’s tally with an excellent point to give Skryne a half-time lead of Dunshaughlin 0-01, Skryne 1-01

Skryne started off strongly in the second half adding two points in the opening two minutes with Conor Donohoe and Tommy Carpenter getting on the scoresheet. Dunshaughlin began to put more pressure on Skryne as the game wore on and two pointed frees from their number 9 edged them closer. Niall Morley got his second point of the game at the midway point of the half, this time from a placed ball. Dunshaughlin added another before Jason Fox slotted over from distance. Dunshaughlin hit two more points to reduce the deficit to just two points with 5 minutes remaining. Cillian Moss eased the pressure with a fine point as the game entered injury time. Dunshaughlin registered the final point of the game but it was too little too late as Skryne held on for a deserved victory.

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