St Peters, Dunboyne: 3-8  St Pats, Stamullen: 1-9

Dunboyne U14 boys won the Div 2 League title in style last night in front of a good crowd in Pairc Tailtean. To view photos click here

The team was down a few warriors through injuries, vacations and Gaeltacht’s but the progression this group has made throughout the last 18 months enabled the stretched panel to step up to the mark. The mood music was spot on from the start. First into the dressing room was the two injured warriors – Adam Hughes and David Malone – great to see them involved and encouraging the team all the way. Captain Jack Kelly led the warm up routine and was heartening to see the full panel responding to his every request. The heads were definitely focused and in the right space. After Liam Duggan’s words of wisdom the team bounded out onto the perfect county pitch, nearly taking the door off the hinges on the way.

The first 10 minutes were a nervy affair for the Dunboyne lads. They struggled to get hold of the ball and St Pats definitely had the upper hand during this time and by the 8th minute had 1:03 on the board without Dunboyne registering their first score. That score came in the 11thminute where Sean McHale converted a penalty to the back of the net. This kick started a mini-revival but, while the link up play was excellent, Dunboynes shooting was a bit off and the wides tally started to add up. St Pats were dangerous on the attack though and kicked over two fine points in the 17th and 18th minutes and were yet to register a wide (1:00 to 1:05). While the game wasn’t over Dunboyne still needed something special to keep them in it. That something came in injury time in the first half. First up was a goal of great quality – Goalkeeper Ewan Hughes found Jamie Doyle with a pass. Jamie proceeded to beat his man and deliver to Conor Murphy on the right wing who off loaded to James Brady. James looked up and saw the lively Shane McCormack and picked him out with a pin point pass and McCormack duly buried it to the back of the net. From the next kick out Dunboyne again won possession through Luke Gavigan-Dowling and ended up with a well taken score from John Harkin to put the minimum between the sides at the break with St Pats shading it on a score line of 2:01 to 1:05.

The second half was another tight affair and Dunboyne can thank their goalkeeper Ewan Hughes for keeping it like that. In the very first minute St Pats got possession and played a lovely passing move to end up 1v1 with only Ewan to beat. But the Dunboyne keeper was a match and got down low to his left to pull off an astonishing save. This was a turning point and was a real tonic to St Peters. In the next 2 minutes Shane McCormack and John Harkin clipped over two points to put us in front but 2 minutes later the impressive St Pats #11 scored again to level up matters on 2:03 to 1:06. St Peters were beginning to turn the screw at this stage with Jack Kelly and the mobile Tyrone Connolly impressive down the spine of the defence. In the 10th minute the silky Sean McHale scored a beauty off his left, followed 60 seconds later by Daniel Hickey with an equally impressive point from his right to put Dunboyne 2 points up, but Pats brought it back to 1 point again 2 minutes later with a converted free kick to make 2:05 to 1:07.

On 14 minutes James Brady burst through for a point after great link up play involving John Harkin and Shane McCormack and this was followed up 3 minutes later with another point from McCormack. Dunboyne were reduced to 14 men on 22 minutes and were immediately under pressure as St Pats tried to expose their numerical advantage and manged to score two points in the 22nd and 24th minutes to make the score 2:07 to 1: 9  heading into injury time. Up step Daniel Hickey in the last minute of normal time to chip over a neat point but it was his goal in the 1st minute of injury time that put the game to bed once and for all. A blistering run through the heart of the Stamullen defence and a power house shot in off the underside of the cross bar resulted in a 5 point delta and a rousing roar from the main stand. Stamullen were also reduced to 14 men in the last few minutes but the game was over as a contest at that time and Dunboyne ran out winners on a final score of St Peters, Dunboyne: 3:08             St Pats, Stamullen: 1:09

St. Peter’s Dunboyne: Ewan Hughes; Jamie Doyle; Jack Kelly; Stephen Leonard; Bobby Cunningham; Tyrone Connolly; Oisin Ryan; Luke Gavigan-Dowling; James Brady (0:01); Caolan McGovern; Daniel Hickey (1:02); Jamie Hickey; Shane McCormack (1:02); Sean McHale (1:01); Oscar Tiernan; Sean McNulty; Cian Duggan; Josh Felle; John Harkin; Conor Murphy; Cillian Felle; Ronan Kelly;

Unavailable: David Malone (inj); Adam Hughes (inj); Cathal Melody; Cian Doyle; Dillan Farrell; Jamie McCormack;

Next Up: This group will head into the National Football Feile competition next weekend - 28th/29th/30th June. With the League wrapped up they are now in a great position to take on the best in Ireland. This team is never beaten until the final whistle and have shown this many times through out both the League and County Feile campaigns. This was also evident in the final where they registered  a combined 2:02 of their total score during both injury times. Best of luck in Galway lads!

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