Hoganstand Senior Football Championship, Round 1
Skryne 1-14 St. Patricks 3-03
Official Report
Many Clouds reigned supreme at Aintree and there were many clouds over Duleek also as Skryne overcame St. Patrick’s yesterday in the first round of the Meath SFC. While the clouds never really broke and the rain stayed away for most part, the strong breeze towards the Town end of the pitch made playing against it very difficult. Therefore the old saying of a game of two halves was never more accurate than it was yesterday.
St Pats had the benefit of this very strong wind for the first half and made very good use of it to lead at half time by 3-2 to 0-5. Two of their goals came within a two minute spell after about 20 minutes of this opening period to leave them 9 points in front and the Blues looked in serious trouble. Defensively Skryne were all over the place at this stage but to their credit the forwards rallied and added 3 unanswered points before the break through Patrick O’Rourke, Paddy Fox and Mark Battersby.
With the gale force wind behind them Skryne went for the jugular in the second half and restricted the losers to a single point from a free during this 30 minutes. Meanwhile scorer in chief Batts and the excellent Big P accounted for all of Skryne’s 9 points in this half. The goal which sealed the Stamullen men’s fate coming as the last score of the game from Brian Davis after good approach work from all the Skryne forwards.
So its onwards and upwards to the next match versus Seneschalstown in Ratoath in two weeks two weeks time.
Alternative Report
After conceding 3 goals in the first half, Skryne, courtesy of the dynamic duo Mark Battersby and Paddy O’ Rourke managed to to tag on 1-09 points in the second half to overhaul St.Patricks and run out 5 point winners in their opening match of the 2015 Senior Football Championship.
St. Patricks played with the aid of a stiff wind in the first half, but it was Skryne who got the scoring underway with Batts pointing in the first minute before Paddy O’ Rourke stroked over a 45 against the wind after 4 minutes. St. Pats replied with 2 points of their own, one a fine point from near the left sideline, leaving the score 0-2 each after quarter of an hour.
St. Pats scored the first of their 3 goals on 16 minutes when the ball was punched to the net past a stranded Ian Gillette. Skryne didn’t panic though and Paddy O’ Rourke and Patrick Fox tagged on 2 points to leave just a point between the sides. Skryne 0-04 St. Patricks 1-02. It was then that St. Pats went goal crazy scoring 2 goals in 2 minutes, the first coming in the 22nd minute. Skryne managed to pull back a point with a Mark Battersby free on the 27th minute. The half time score was Skryne 0-05 St. Patricks 3-02.
Skryne had the benefit of the wind in the second half and consequently much of the play was played in the St. Pats half. Mark Battersby continued his scoring spree with 2 frees in the 2nd and 4th minutes of the half. Paddy O’ Rourke pointed from play on the 5th minute and Skryne were gradually eating into the lead of St. Pats. Skryne suffered a setback on 6 minutes when Conor O’ Brien was black carded. He was replaced by Aidan Tuite who turned in a good shift for the rest of the game. Skryne were in determined mood with Paddy O’ Rourke striking over a free on the 9th minute followed almost immediately by a point from Mark Battersby. Battersby then got the equaliser on the 12th minute with a pointed free. Almost inevitably it was the Batts again with another pointed free on the 16th minute to put Skryne into a well deserved lead. Paddy O’ Rourke scored another fine point from play on the 19th minute. St. Pats were getting no change from Skryne in the second half and it wasn’t until the 25th minute of the half that they finally posted a score with a point from a free. This was cancelled out by a Mark Battersby pointed free on 26th minute. Brian Davis hit the net in the 28th minute following good work from Paddy O’ Rourke to make it Skryne 1-14 to St. Patricks 3-03.
The Batts finished off with an impressive tally of 0-08 with his strike partner Paddy O’ Rourke bagging 0-05. Overall Skryne were well worth their victory in this game, but will face sterner tests in later rounds of the Championship.
Skryne – Ian Gillette. Niall Lenehan, Ciaran Lenehan, Vinny O’Reilly. Ronan McCabe, Mark Jordan, Adam O’Sullivan. Donie Ryan, Thomas McKeown. Conor O’Brien, Stephen O’Brien, Paddy Fox (0-1). Brian Davis (1-0), Patrick O’Rourke (0-5), Mark Battersby (0-8). Sub used Aidan Tuite.
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