Quarter-final ending for second successive year
November 30, 2009
After running eventual winners St Ultan's to two points in a 2008 IFC quarter-final clash, St Michael's looked a good bet to progress further this year. However, that was not to be as they fell at the same hurdle when losing to Kilmainhamwood. By Noel Coogan.
The team again managed by former Meath goalkeeper Donal Smyth suffered two defeats, to Gaeil Colmcille and Dunderry, in the six-team Group A and trailed by five points at half-time and full-time against the 'Wood in their final championship outing of the decade at Carnaross.
St Michael's seemed to lack consistency as they had a promising winning run in the earlier stages of the Division 2 A League and were at the top of the table before being overtaken by Skryne and Trim, who qualified for the final.
Former Meath senior forward Daithi Regan and Ciaran Lynch were the main scorers for the Carlanstown/Kilbeg side in 2009 and they were prominent in helping to gain three wins and a draw in the league before the championship action started.
The early season wins were gained at the expense of fellow intermediate outfits Cortown, Ballinlough and Syddan while a 3-9 to 2-12 draw was achieved against St Ultan's with Regan helping himself to 1-5 and Lynch scoring 1-3 including a late levelling goal.
Four of the six teams in the St Michael's group were from the north of the county and the opener on a wet and windy evening at Moynalty pitted them against Carnaross, a game which the men in red and black won comfortably on a 2-9 to 0-6 scoreline.
With Ciaran Lynch putting over four points, Michael's were ahead by 0-5 to 0-2 at the break in a game in which referee Dick Morris showed nine yellow cards, five to the Carlanstown/Kilbeg side.
The two goals were netted in the third quarter with John Barry O'Reilly and Daithi Regan applying the finishing touches. Both of those finished up with 1-2 and Lynch got the other five points. Donal Smyth expressed satisfaction with the winning start but his charges lost in their next two IFC outings.
On the May Bank Holiday Monday Carnaross hosted an interesting local derby and at the end of the Kells contingent were celebrating after Gaeil Colmcille's 1-11 to 0-11 victory.
In what was described as "a tough, at times rugged, hard-hitting contest," Benny Reddy's men struck the last four points to go to the top of the table on their own. The Mick's conceded the goal, which was punched to the net by Gary Arkins, after 17 minutes and it was 1-7 to 0-8 at the halfway stage.
St Michael's resumed strongly with three points to edge ahead. However, they were unable to respond to their opponents' late surge and a goal attempt by Brendan Ryan whizzed just outside an upright.
Ryan did find the net in the fourth round outing against Dunderry at Bohermeeen's Newman Park but it was Dunderry who had the smiles on their faces at the end of a close contest as they gained a 0-16 to 2-9 victory.
The minimum margin also separated the sides at the break when the board read 0-8 to 1-4. Goals from Ryan and Ciaran Lynch helped Michael's lead by three points with 10 minutes. But, as in their previous outing, they faded in the run to the line with Dunderry finishing the better.
St Michael's got back to winning ways when outscoring bottom of the table Drumconrath by 1-12 to 1-10 at Meath Hill despite having to play the entire second half without the dismissed John Barry O'Reilly.
Brendan Farrell netted the winners' goal and they held out in a nervous finish to take both points and set up a do or die clash with Na Fianna in the last round of the group stages.
Despite being forced to field without the injured Ciaran Lynch and John Barry O'Reilly (suspended), St Michael's made it through to the last eight with a 2-13 to 2-9 victory over the south county opposition in Athboy.
They overcame a slow start in which the Enfield side went into a 1-1 to 0-0 advantage. Na Fianna were still ahead at the break, by 2-5 to 1-5, and they led by 2-9 to 2-6 with 43 minutes gone.
But Na Fianna did not score again as St Michael's reeled off seven successive points to advance in third place behind Dunderry and Gaeil Colmcille. Daithi Regan made a big contribution with a return of 1-9 as well as sending in the delivery from which Kevin Cassidy punched in their second goal.
St Michael's suffered their second IFC defeat this year at Carnaross when Kilmainhamwood scored a 1-10 to 0-8 success in the quarter-final tussle, having led by 1-6 to 0-4 at the interval.
In a disappointing showing, the losers only managed two scores from open play, put over by Ciaran Lynch and John Barry O'Reilly. Daithi Regan's scoring was restricted to one converted free and Lynch kicked over five frees.
Regan had a chance of a goal late in the first half but his attempt was comfortably kept out by the 'Wood's netminder Michael Clarke. Three points was as close as Michael's got in the second half.
They were behind by 0-7 to 1-7 when O'Reilly pointed on 52 minutes. Although Kilmainhamwood had to soak up a bit of pressure in the second period, they responded to the opposition's second score from play by raising the white flag twice.
Lynch's sixth point was all the Carlanstown/Kilbeg side could muster in reply and the introduction of the permitted five substitutes failed to have the desired effect as the winners' top scorer, Stephen Kiernan, had the last say with the last score, put over in injury-time.
St Michael's defender Derek Flood had a busy year, playing with the Meath senior and junior teams as well as assisting his club. "If someone told me at the start of the year that I would start in four National League games, I would not have believed them.
"I played against Fermanagh, Armagh, Monaghan and Wexford. It was a great experience and a great honour to represent the county. I put in a lot of effort but I was dropped off the panel after the game against Dublin.
"While it was disappointing to be left off the squad, I wasn't the first player to be dropped off a county panel. I just accepted it and got back to concentrating entirely on club football." he said.
"We had Donal Smyth as manager for his second year and he put in a lot of good work. We did well in Division 2 of the A League, we were the only team to beat to Skryne, who went on to win it out. Trim, who got to the final were the only team to beat us while St Ultan's, Carnaross and Rathkenny drew with us.
"We won the Division 3 League last year and it was a good achievement to go close to gaining promotion to the top flight. Playing against senior sides in the league should help us improve our standard. However, two defeats in the group stages of the championship made matters difficult for us.
"When you finish in third place in the group, it means that you meet one of the better teams at the quarter-final stage. But I suppose you have to be prepared to beat the best if you want to win a championship.
"Last year we lost our first two championship games although we recovered well from that bad start to run eventual winners St Ultan's to two points in a quarter-final game. We thought we'd get a step or two further this year but our lack of consistency meant that we again lost two group games.
"There were a lot of expectations about us after going so close last year and there was no lack of effort in training. It was good to get off to a winning start with the win over Carnaross but then we lost to Gaeil Colmcille and Dunderry.
"However, we recovered well and we scored well in the wins over Drumconrath and Na Fianna, over whom we had better score difference to clinch third place. However, we didn't play well in the game against Kilmainhamwood.
"Daithi Regan and Ciaran Lynch returned after injury after missing the Na Fianna game. Maybe they weren't 100 per cent fit for the quarter-final but there's no point in making excuses.
"Kilmainhamwood were much better than us on the day. We only scored eight points with just two of them coming from play. You won't win many games with a total of eight points.
"Despite not getting any further in the championship than last year, I still think we made progress. We'll just have to look ahead to 2010 and maybe put in even more work.
"There are a good number of possible winners in the intermediate championship each year, it's a hard one to predict correctly. Come next April we will be determined to give it a good crack again and hopefully we can do better," concluded Flood.
St. Michael's girls add U13 title
St. Michaels added the U-13 title to their U-14 and U-16 titles with a hard fought U-13 Division 3 Championship Final win (4-3 to 2-6) over neighbours Gaeil Colmcille in a closely contested and entertaining match in Carlanstown.
The visitors were first to score, a point after just 3 minutes however it was end to end stuff for the next 20 minutes with neither side able to register a score until Alisha Curtis managed to break the deadlock with a well taken goal which was followed a minute later by a goal for Gaeil Colmcille. St. Michaels went back up the field where Edwina Olwell tapped in another goal. The Kells side added two further points while Claire O'Connell added a point to leave St. Michaels ahead 2-1 to 1-3 at the interval.
St. Michaels were first out of the blocks in the second half and had notched up 1-2, a goal from Susanne Reilly and points from Dara Slater and Claire O'Connell before Gaeil Colmcille opened their second half account with a goal on 17 minutes. The visitors piled on the pressure for the remainder of the match adding 3 more points, however with Anna McQuaid, Patricia Owens and Alana Kernan putting in excellent performances at the back St. Michaels held out and Haley Doyle finished the scoring with a goal in the dying minutes to cap a brilliant year for the young ladies of St. Michaels.
St. Michaels - Alana Kernan, Patricia Owens, Danielle Moran, Claire Reilly, Lauren Doyle, Anna McQuaid, Claire O'Connell 0-2, Edwina Olwell 1-0, Susanne Reilly 1-0, Sally Keoghan, Dara Slater 0-1, Alisha Curtis 1-0, Haley Doyle 1-0.
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