MICHAEL’S SUFFER FIRST DEFEAT IN IFC
Tuesday August 13th 2019, IFC Group B, Round 3
Full time: St. Michaels 0-08, Castletown 1-11,
Half time: St. Michaels 0-06, Castletown 0-06.
St. Michaels suffered their first defeat of this campaign as their neighbours Castletown jumped to the summit of the Meade Potato Co. IFC group B table after this clash in Drumconrath last evening. In what was a fairly evenly contested match throughout, Castletown inflicted the serious damage in the final four minutes when they added 1-2 without reply to seal victory.
While the exchanges were as competitive as one would expect for a local derby, the quality was lacking overall with both sides squandering many chances in front of the posts and when St. Michaels were reduced to 14 men with the dismissal of Mark Stafford to a second yellow with a little over 10 minutes remaining it was Castletown’s experience and guile that served them well at the end.
After an evenly contested opening half, both sides went in at the break on level terms, 0-6 apiece, Shane McCormack opened the scoring with a point in the first minute and it was tit for tat from there to the short whistle with Ciaran Lynch (0-3), Shane McDonnell (0-2) and Mark Stafford (0-1) on target for St. Michaels. Darren O’Connell put in a good hours work and kept his side in the game with some great blocks in both the first and second halves.
Castletown pulled away with three unanswered points in the opening ten minutes of the second half, St. Michaels didn’t open their second half account until the 44th minute when the hard working Shane McDonnell sent one over on the run. Ciaran Lynch pointed from a free four minutes later for what proved to be his sides final score of the match and to leave it a one point game.
Try as they might St. Michaels failed to get deliveries into their forwards who were starved of good ball for the entire second half. Castletown fared no better as they went a full 17 minutes without working the umpires and it wasn’t until St. Michaels went down a man that they began to get a grip of the game when they posted two minors in the 27th and 28th minutes and it didn’t get any easier for St. Michaels as they tried to work the ball down the field from their own kick-out which Castletown’s substitute Kenny Smith latched onto before billowing the net in the 59th minute for the final nail in the St. Michaels coffin.
St. Michaels team and scorers:
Darren O’Connell; Ciaran O’Reilly, Sam Briody, Ben Reilly; Alan Reilly, Matthew Halpin, Harry Dunne; Shane McCormack (0-1f), Mark Stafford (0-1); Ray Reilly, Paddy Clarke, Lee Morris; Oran Meehan, Shane McDonnell (0-2), Ciaran Lynch (0-4, 2f).
Subs: Paddy Tobin for Lee Morris.
Referee: Brendan O’Brien.
Report: Pascal Reilly PRO.