Colm Geary Cup (Special Hurling League)

Round 1

St Fechins 3-11

Naomh Moninne 0-5

St Fechins began the new season where they left off in 2016 with a rousing defeat of Naomh Moninne in Beaulieu on Saturday night. With ten players on county duty, they fielded a youthful side in the opening round of the Colm Geary Cup, but their dominance at minor level is having the desired effect with young guns Ian Connor and Liam Ryan dominating play in the middle of the field backed up by an excellent performance from rookie 'keeper John Stephenson.

The home side enjoyed the majority of possession in the first half and raced to an early lead scoring a goal and eight points without reply. Connor and Ryan opened the scoring with well taken points from play before Michéal Byrne slotted over the first of his frees. Connor and Byrne were on target again before Sean Hodgins found the back of the net for his side's first goal. Centre back Oisín Byrne put over a point from distance, while John Crosbie and Barry Devlin both struck points from difficult angles. With five minutes remaining in the half, Naomh Moninne got on the scoresheet with a well taken point from play, but from the puck-out Ian Connor had replied for St Fechins with a goal. St Fechins finished out the half with 65' from Michéal Byrne and a Vincent Hynes point, while a Moninne point on the verge of half time left the score at 2-10 to 0-2.

Naomh Moninne began the second half with a fresh impetus, scoring three unanswered points, two frees from Ronan Geoghegan and one from play by Oisín Drumm, but were unable to close the gap any further. Michéal Byrne scored the last of his four points from placed balls midway through the half and Ian Connor completed his scoring with a second goal. Late in the game John Stephenson ended the scoring with a long distance free. Both teams will be disappointed with the wide count in the second half and will hope to improve when they open their Leinster Club Hurling League campaigns next weekend.

St Fechins:

John Stephenson 0-1 (0-1f), Cormac McAuley, Robert Moynagh, Paddy Reddy, Oisín Byrne 0-1, Donnacha O'Connell, Liam Ryan 0-1, Sean McConnell, Michéal Byrne 0-4 (0-3f, 0-1 65'), Vincent Hynes 0-1, Ian Connor 2-2, Sean Hodgins 1-0, John Crosbie 0-1, Barry Devlin 0-1

Subs: Brendan Hynes, Matthew McEvoy, Evan McGrane, Brian O'Connell, Conor Higgins

Naomh Moininne:

Donal Connolly, Thomas McArdle, Chris Lennon, Donal Lee, Niall Cafferkey, Liam Blundell, Donal Griffin, Oisín Drumm, Andrew McArdle, Ronan Geoghegan, John Martin, Philip Englishby, Collins Connolly, Mark Spain, James Murphy

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