U21FC Quarter Final. Skryne 1-08 Ratoath 1-15

Skryne 1-08 Ratoath 1-15

U21FC – Quarter Final

Skryne had a second half to forget in Saturday evening’s U21FC quarter final as they surrendered a two point half time lead to finish seven points adrift at the final whistle and with only twelve men on the pitch following three sending offs.

Skryne went into this game missing at least half a dozen key players including Meath U21s Eoghan Greene and Robbie Clarke and in fact they had a panel of just seventeen players to select from. Despite this they put in an excellent first half display where they lead by five points at one stage. The sides swapped scores inside the opening few minutes with Ratoath getting the scoring underway with only a minute on the clock. Darragh Campion replied with an excellent point after a trademark run through the heart of the Ratoath defence before tapping over. A second point from Ratoath saw a similar response from Skryne with Campion on the mark again. Skryne sat deep for most of the game, employing a counterattacking strategy and this certainly paid off in the first half with Skryne causing Ratoath all sorts of problems when breaking forward, with Campion, Eoin Smyth and Jayo Fox in particular catching the eye. Two points from Eoin Smyth, one a fisted effort put Skryne two points ahead. Another surging run from Darragh Campion came to a halt when he was dragged down inside the Ratoath penalty area. Jayo Fox took the spot-kick and was denied initially by the keeper who kept the shot out. However Fox was quickest to the loose ball and he made no mistake when sidefooting to the net to give Skryne a five point cushion. Ratoath hit two points in a row to reduce the deficit before Craig Nolan got on the scoresheet with a fine effort. Ratoath’s number 10 who was excellent throughtout got two more points for Ratoath before Tommy Carpenter tacked on another point for Skryne. Ratoath added a pointed free in first half injury time to leave the score at half-time Skryne 1-06 Ratoath 0-07

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Ratoath came out of the traps quickly in the second half and scored a point almost immediately from the restart. They levelled matters five minutes later with another point and it remained this way until the fifteenth minute when they took the lead with a pointed free. Jason Reddy levelled matters again a minute later, but from then on Ratoath set down anchor in the Skryne half. They added two points to their tally before they hit a goal when they won a Skryne kickout and returned it with interest after a slick move which cut through the Skryne defence and was finished with aplomb to the back of the Skryne net. Skryne’s challenge unravelled after this and frustration saw them lose two of their key men when Darragh Campion and Jason Reddy both received their marching orders with ten minutes still remaining. Ratoath added a further three points before the end while Skryne managed only a single pointed free from Jayo Fox in injury time. Darren Fox received a second yellow in the final minute of the game to leave Skryne with only twelve men on the pitch as the final whistle sounded. Final score: Skryne 1-08, Ratoath 1-15.

Skryne deserve a lot of credit as they managed to present a stern challenge to Ratoath despite having to work with such a small squad and without half a dozen players who would have been part of the first fifteen had they been available.

Skryne – Andrew Moore; Jack Dardis, Michael Doherty, David Carroll; Tommy Carpenter(0-01), Darren Fox, Colm Doherty; Darragh Campion(0-02), Colm Craigie; Frank Carty, Eoin Smyth(0-02), Padraig Finnerty, Craig Nolan(0-01), Jason Reddy(0-01), Jason Fox(1-01)

Subs used – Seán Byrne, Colm McLoughlin.