MFL Semi-Final.

St. Michaels 4-11, Bective / Dunsany 7-8

A final score of 4-11 would win 90% of games, but not this one as St. Michaels conceded 7 goals, the same as they did at the same venue in the opening round against the same opposition back in February.                    

The home opposition made all the early running and were 3-3 to to 0-1 to the good after only 13 minutes of play as a Cian Sheridan point was all St. Michaels had to show for their early exertions. However, in fairness to the St. Michaels lads they did get the scoreboard moving again at the end of the first quarter with a well executed point from Shane McCormack, the same player followed up two minutes later with his second minor before Shane McDonnell rattled the back of the home net with a fierce shot from close range. Ben Reilly won the resultant Bective / Dunsany kick-out, he found McDonnell in open space and the ace marksman made no mistake with his second major in as many minutes for his side to trail by 2-4 to 3-3. McCormack then left one between the sides and two minutes later a Rory O'Driscoll effort had the sides all square. The St. Michaels pressure was now relentless and following some good foraging work by Caolan McConnell, he found McDonnell who made no mistake in registering his hat-trick to put St. Michaels into a 3-6 to 3-4 interval lead. The home combination side registered their goals in the first, fourth and thirteenth minutes to give them that early lead.                                                                             

Bective / Dunsany picked off 1-1 in the opening two minutes of the second half but four points without reply from Paddy Tobin (1) and Shane McCormack (3 frees) stemmed the home sides tide and put St. Michaels 3-10 to 4-5 in front, but slack defensive work proved to be their downfall because for the following 10 minutes the home side dominated and put 3-1 on the board without reply to go into a 9 point lead, 7-7 to 3-10 with just 10 minutes remaining. St. Michaels piled on the pressure for those final 10 minutes but another point from McConnell and a goal from McCormack on 53 minutes was all they could muster and it wasn't enough to rescue the situation as the combination side secured a place in the final with the last score of the match, a point on 55 minutes.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

St. Michaels team and scorers: Jason O'Donnell, Harry Dunne, Alex Farrell, Scott Doyle, Conor Moran, Ciaran O'Reilly, Cian Sheridan, Shane McCormack, Ben Reilly, Caolan McConnell, Rory O'Driscoll, Paddy Tobin, Shane McDonnell.                                                                  

Sub: S. Dolan for Farrell, C. McGivern for Doyle, A. Farrell for McConnell, C. McConnell for Tobin, S. Doyle for O'Driscoll.                             

Referee: Stephen O'Hare, Syddan.

Report and photo Pascal Reilly.

 

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