Seneschalstown 3-17 Navan O’Mahonys 0-13

With both teams entering this final group game encounter safe in the knowledge that they were already into the semi-finals of the Championship but with the carrot of home advantage in those upcoming semi-finals for the winners there was still much to play for.

Having won their encounter in the League earlier in the season, O’Mahonys cane into the game as the favourites in the eyes of some observers but in the end, it was the home side who came out on top in a more comfortable manner than anybody could have expected.

The opening exchanges saw both teams start somewhat nervously, with defence having the better of the early part of the game. In this spell, O’Mahonys had the greater ability to carve out scoring opportunities but they were rather profligate with a number of shots drifting wide. Ultimately, they were to rue missing chances like these as in Division 1 a team needs to make the most of their opportunities while they also saw a few good goal scoring opportunities go abegging as they struggled to raise a green flag.

Seneschalstown it was who opened the scoring in the third minute when Tom Barron showed some neat skill to engineer the space to get his shot away. O’Mahonys responded with a Brian O’Hanlon effort from play but their early tally of wides was already beginning to mount. Sean Commons, on nine minutes, managed to shrug off his opponent’s attention and point when he got on the end of good play from Kit Waddington and Joseph Moore. O’Hanlon was looking lively and he equalised soon after when knocking over a free, but Jamie Kirwan then opened his account with a smartly taken effort. Kirwan then snuck in for a goal when he reacted quickest to a loose ball when Tom Barron’s goal attempt was parried back out.

Commons who was getting on top of his own personal duel, then added a brace of points. O’Mahonys were still creating the opportunities but finding scores hard to come by but did add a few points on the run in to half time only for Seneschalstown to raise white flags through Moore and Commons who picked off a brace apiece to leave the half time scoreboard reading Seneschalstown 1-09 Navan O’Mahonys 0-05.

By this stage an O’Mahonys player had sustained a worrying injury after an accidental collision and all present would no doubt wish him a full and timely recovery and thanks to those who provided medical assistance.

Needing a quick start to the second half, the visitors got just that with the opening couple of points, but these were cancelled out when Commons tapped over a close range free after James O’Hare fell to the ground after receiving something akin to a bear hug and then Moore hoisted over after Ross Mullen capitalised on a stray kickout. A pointed free at the other end suggested O’Mahonys might be about to mount another effort at a comeback but this was soon extinguished when Barron got on the end of a long ball in towards the edge of the square to flick the ball to the back of the net after he just beat the onrushing goalkeeper to the punch, leaving ten points between the sides.

From here to the end the game meandered towards the somewhat inevitable conclusion. Every time O’Mahonys managed a score, Seneschalstown hit back with a few of their own with Woodley Nicholson, Ross Mullen, Sean Commons, Jamie Kirwan and Alan Carey all adding to the tally while midfielder Podge Finnegan raised another green flag.

On an evening when it was very much a team performance, Sean Commons, Kit Waddington and Cathal Darby shone brightest. Next up is the semi-final on Sunday September 30th.

Seneschalstown: Cathal Darby; Josh Ryan; Simon Rooney; Will Finnegan; Kit Waddington; Woodley Nicholson (0-01); Cillian Lawlor; James O’Hare; Podge Finnegan (1-00); Ross Mullen (0-01, 0-01 Free); Sean Commons (0-08, 0-2 Frees, 0-01 ‘45); Joseph Moore (0-03); Jamie Kirwan (1-02); Tom Barron (1-01); Jeaic Timmons.

Seneschalstown Substitutions:  Conor McDonnell for W. Finnegan; Donal Commons for T. Barron; Alan Carey (0-01) for R. Mullen; Tom Smith for J. Ryan.

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