Skryne 0 – 13; Simonstown 2 – 17
Skryne bowed out of this years under 21 championship in a match which looked very unlikely to proceed at the appointed time in Kilberry on Sunday 12 October. However, having waited for over half an hour, referee Jason Smyth, who obviously has contact with a higher authority, decided to get the match under way despite extreme difficulty in seeing either goal from the centre of the pitch at the time. This proved to be an inspired decision as no more than five minutes into the game the fog lifted and it turned out to be a fine day for a game. However, Skryne took a little longer to get into the game than for the fog to lift and by the time the half time whistle blew they found themselves 1 – 8 to 0 – 3 in arrears. The goal came in the tenth minute when the ball was fumbled during what was a promising attack for the Tara men and the resultant clearance went all the way down field and was finished to the Skryne net by the Simonstown men. This left them 1 – 2 to 0 – 1 in arrears, the Skryne score coming from John Morley. Cian Lynch and Donie Ryan were the other two Skryne players to score in the opening half.
After the resumption Conor O’Brien was moved up front from the Centre back position and this had the desired result of creating scoring opportunities. Neil Burke, John Morley and O’Brien converted these chances and with fifty five minutes gone Skryne found themselves only four points in arrears on a score line of 1 – 14 to 0 – 13. However that was as good as it got. Skryne did have a gilt edged chance of a goal but the ball was driven across the goal and went harmlessly wide. From the resultant kick out the ball was worked up-field and was eventually knocked across the Skryne goal-line for the decisive score. Simonstown added a further three points which really flattered them on the finishing score-line as the Skryne team did make a valiant effort to rescue this game and were much closer to the opposition than the final score suggests. Best for Skryne was Conor O’Brien.
Skryne: O Gryson, P Murphy, N Lenehan, T. Lennon, E Byrne, C. O’Brien (2), S. O’Brien, D. Ryan (1), H. Rooney, J. Morley(4), N. Burke(6), C. Lynch (1), S. Cassidy, P. Doherty, N. Morley. Subs: C. Murphy for N. Morley(58 min), K. O’Rourke for Lennon(58 min).
Referee: Jason Smyth
Joseph O’Brien Skryne PRO
