Seamus Connolly Catering A League. Division 1A – Round 3. Simonstown Gaels 2-15, Skryne 1-11

Skryne travelled to Simonstown with a depleted squad for this rescheduled round 3 game. Despite this, they were well in this game up until midway through the second-half. However, injuries and the concession of two goals in the last 8 minutes of the game were to prove costly as they let this game slip through their fingers.

The omens weren’t good for Skryne when they arrived in Simonstown without talismen Harry Rooney and Niall Lenehan who joined an ever-growing injury list. Less than 3 minutes into the game, Skryne lost their influential centre-back Paddy Fox to a hamstring injury. Simonstown opened the scoring with a point from Aaron Farrelly. A minute later, Skryne’s Oisín Keogh won a free in midfield and took it quickly to Niall Finnerty who broke in behind the Simonstown full-back line before finishing low to the bottom right-corner of the net. Simonstown added two more points before Oisín Keogh ran in on the Simonstown goal and hit a rasper of a shot that crashed off the crossbar. Ciarán Quinn collected the rebound but saw his shot blocked away. Simonstown were more economical in front of goal and continued to chalk up scores, hitting four more points without reply while Skryne could only add to their wide count. Simonstown lead by 0-07 to 1-00 at the midway point of the half. Skryne finally got the scoreboard moving with Niall Finnerty, Ciarán Quinn and Oisín Keogh hitting three in a row to reduce the deficit to just one. Michael Gavin added a point for Simonstown. A Niall Finnerty double saw Skryne draw level 24 minutes into the half. Simonstown’s Eoghan Gough and Andrew Kearney restored their lead, but Skryne almost bagged a second goal on the stroke of half-time when Ian Davis saw his shot smothered by Simonstown netminder Robert Burlingham. This was to be Davis’s last action in the game as he too was forced to retire at half-time due to injury. Half-time: Simonstown Gaels 0-10, Skryne 1-05.

Skryne started off brightly in the second half and were level inside the first three minutes with Shane Smyth and Padraig Finnerty both on target for the blues. The injury curse struck again a minute later when Niall Finnerty withdrew with a recurrence of his hamstring injury. Despite this Mark Battersby and Andrew Canavan traded points with Simonstown to maintain parity at the midway point of the half. The game unravelled for Skryne from then on. Simonstown kicked off the third quarter with a point before they won a penalty with 8 minutes remaining. Luke Caffrey blasted the penalty to the net. They followed this with another point before Mark Battersby converted a free for Skryne. Andrew Kearney stretched Simonstown’s lead before they hit the final nail in the Skryne coffin deep into injury time when they attacked down the right-hand side before the ball was centered to Shane McEnery who finished low into the Skryne net. Skryne did add a consolation point with Mark Battersby tapping over a free in the last minute of the game. Full-time: Simonstown Gaels 2-15, Skryne 1-11.

Next up for Skryne is a trip to Enfield where they will play Na Fianna in Round 9.

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