St Marys 3-19 Donaghmore Ashbourne 0-6.

After a night of heavy rain there was a late change of venue, Skryne was water-logged but thankfully St Colmcilles made Pilltown available, many thanks to Keith and Jackser for facilitating the fixture.

A fantastic league campaign last year led to St Mary's promotion to Division 3, they have however found life difficult there. The big question today was would the better standard in division 3 bring them on or would the defeats damage confidence?

The game began quiet intensely and both teams had fight for every ball. Don/Ash struck first when Colin O Sullivan kicked a fine point from a free. St Marys were back on level terms when Joe Moore poined well from a free. Don/Ash then went 2 points to the good with scores from Colin O Sullivan and Cian Field. But St Marys then found there rhythm and when Stephen Bishop's free was quickly followed with fine points from Niall Curran and James Lynch St Marys found themselves a point to the good. At this crucial stage Don/Ash's Cian Field was excellently dispossessed as a result of a superb tackle by the young debutant Tyrone Thompson when a Don /Ash goal looked the only logical outcome.

St Marys then began to turn the screw and with points from Robbie Callaghan, Stephen Bishop along with a great pointed 50 from Niall Curran St Marys led by 3, then up stepped Niall Curran to kick his second 50 of the game, this time the effort didn't have the distance but unfortunately for Don/Ash the effort somehow found itself in the back of their net. At half time St Marys led by 1-8 to 0-5.

After the break St Marys scored an unanswered 2-4 within 8 minutes of the restart. This began with captain Stephen Bishop scoring 2-1 in 3 frantic minutes. The first goal started with some great work by an impressive Niall Curran who then released Nicky Gogan who found James Lynch who in turn found Bishop unmarked who dispatched coolly past Matthew Davis. Curran was involved again with the second goal with the help of Conor Lenehan; their hard work turned over possession which fell to Joe Moore whose long range pass found Bishop who lobbed the onrushing Davis in the Don/Ash goal. Robbie Callaghan pointed well when the post denied Bishop his hat trick minutes later.

With St Marys 13 points to the good Don/Ash were reduced to 14 players when Colin O Sullivan was given a straight red after becoming involved in yet another altercation, this had been coming and the referee was left with little choice. Immediately after this Don/Ash got what turned out to be their only score of the second half a pointed free from John Touhy. St Marys finished strongly; extra fitness and an extra player led tonthe boynesiders utter domination in the final 10 minutes. 2 Points from Nicky Gogan, and Robbie Callaghan, one from Cormac Drew and another from Bishop along with a fine point from another debutant Darren Kavanagh concluded the scoring for the day. St Marys ran out worthy winners, St Marys 3-19 Don/Ash 0-6.

The biggest story of today was that St Marys gave Championship debuts to 4 young players, Andrew Everard, Tyrone Thompson, Darren Kavanagh and Shane Rooney. After many years of hard work St Mary's endeavours at underage level are again providing them with adult players.

Best for St Marys; Bernard McKeown, Conor Lenehan, Niall Curran, Robbie Callaghan, James Lynch and Stephen Bishop.

St Marys- C. Plant, B. Mc Keown, P. Scanlon, T. Thompson, M. Everard, C. Lenehan, A. Everard, J. Moore (0-2), N. Curran (1-3), N. Gogan (0-2), C. Drew (0-1), F. Mc Keown , R. Callaghan (0-4), S. Bishop (2-4), J. Lynch (0-2) Substitutes; D. Kavanagh (0-1) for T. Thompson and S. Rooney for S. Bishop.

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