St Pat's Black 9-13 St Pat's Amber 4-11

By Brian Dowling

Goals win games is how the old saying goes and for anyone in Páirc Tailteann for the Meath First Year Football Division 1 Final on Monday morning witnessed exactly why this is true. The scoreboard of course has the final say, but it doesn't reflect the gallant performance produced by both teams in what was a good game of football.

When the two Niall's, Finnerty and Morland, exchanged two quick goals early in the second half, it looked as though St Pat's Amber would throw in the towel. It was the opposite people saw to what they expected and with a huge mountain to climb the Amber's stayed at it until the end, unlucky that the scores didn't go their way.

Finnerty and Morland were brilliant all morning for the Black's and contributed 5-3 of their sides total between them. Man of the Match Finnerty was involved in endless amount of plays, supplying score after score for his teammates. He did, however, have a first half injury time penalty brilliantly saved by Amber's keeper Niall Devlin, but this was a dim light on the scene he was setting throughout the contest.

It was St Pat's Amber, who wore Simonstown jerseys, who had the first say of the game when full forward Jason Carr pointed brilliantly in the 3rd minute. From the resulting kick out corner forward Ben Macken intercepted the pass and his shot was deflected into the net by Black corner back Eoghan Moore.

The St Pats 'Black' squad

Goalkeeper Devlin was in fine form in the opening exchanges making a brilliant save from Black's midfielder Jamie Flynn on the resulting attack from Moore's deflected goal. Their luck soon changed when Finnerty swung a dangerous ball into the box which was met with the fist of centre forward Darragh Reilly and the green flag was raised.

The green flag featured quite a number of times throughout the game and Amber's reply to Reilly's goal saw it raised again, when target man Carr sent an absolute bullet to the roof of the net after Macken pointed moments earlier.

The first half was end to end football, with Evan Corrigan and Finnerty pointing for the Black's soon before Morland got his first goal after a brilliant pass inside by centre back Adam Rogers.

The pendulum was swinging back and forth throughout an enthralling first half which was levelled up by Black's wing forward Shane McCarthy's fisted point.

The St Pats 'Amber' squad

Two quick Amber points by centre forward Shane Smyth and corner forward Sean Foley swung the tie back in their favour before the drama of the first half unfolded.

The Finnerty-Reilly partnership came into play once more, with another dangerous ball finished exquisitely by Reilly before Amber's Kyle Cosgrove kicked a thirty five yard free.

The final action of the first half involved Finnerty as he went tearing towards the Amber box before being fouled and referee Gerry McGiveny had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Finnerty took the kick, but his effort was met excellently by Devlin.

The Black's began to take a foothold in the game once the second half resumed with an early Jamie Flynn point. Cosgrove replied for Amber with another free before Finnerty, Flynn (free), Corrigan and corner forward Jack Dunne kicked four unanswered points and the lead was suddenly nine.

Faith was restored for Amber when Carr's flying shot deflected off the crossbar into the hands of Cosgrove who buried it in the net. All hopes of a comeback were wiped out straight away as Finnerty cut apart the Amber defence before flicking it to Morland who buried another maximum. He returned the favour straight away when he laid it off to Finnerty who goaled and the mountain became even steeper for the Amber outfit

The remainder of the match was dominated on the scoreboard by the Black's with wing back Liam Maguire pointing brilliantly, Reilly added a point, Finnerty & Morland notched further goals but the Amber's stayed at it and never gave up once throughout the sixty minutes.

Cosgrove pointed further frees alongside a Daniel Coleman point and 1-1 from the boot of Carr, but the luck of scores wasn't with them and the full time whistle was soon blown to send the First Year League title back to Pat's for the third year in a row.

St Pats 'Black' celebrate at Pairc Tailteann

Nobody would have predicted the second outcome at half time after we were treated to a fantastic opening period, but the clinical Black forwards who had an array of speed and skill scoring all but one point from play, just had that little more over their peers to prevail.

Nobody can undo the efforts put in by both teams who have been training and playing together since last September. The Black's were under the guidance of Laois native Seamus Peppard and Mullingar man Mark Donnelly, whilst the Amber were taken care of by Castleknock man John Twomey and former student ,Navan's Fiachra Ross.

It's not every day you see two teams from the same school competing in a final at Division 1 level in Football so this is a huge credit to the players and the managers for putting in the time needed to portray such an elegant brand of football. We certainly owe it to them.

St Pat's Black - Gary Browne, Eoghan Moore (Captain), Darragh Timmons, Ruairi O'Sullivan, Liam Maguire (0-1), Adam Rogers, Shane O'Reilly (0-2), Jamie Flynn (0-2, 1 free), Evan Corrigan (0-2), Shane McCarthy (1-1), Darragh Reilly (2-1), Darragh O'Reilly, Niall Finnerty (2-2), Niall Morland (3-1), Jack Dunne (0-1). Subs: Fionn Fitzsimons, Luke Moran (1-0), Tom Loughran, Adam Donoghue, Ben Moriarty, Luke Caffrey.

St Pat's Amber - Niall Devlin, Conor Mulligan, Joe Downey, Alex Gronden, Daniel Coleman (0-1), Oisin Martyn, Niall Bagnell, Josh Carolan, Charlie Cullen, Jack Hynes, Shane Smyth (0-1), Kyle Corgrove (1-4, 3 frees), Sean Foley (0-1), Jason Carr (1-2), Ben Macken (2-2). Subs: Liam Horton, Tadhg Hanrahan, Ben Gibney, Ruairi Buchanan, Lorcan McEntee, Ben Loughran.

Referee - Gerry McGiveney (Simonstown)

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