Ratoath 1-14, Skryne 0-09

The first round of the A League took place in Ratoath on Sunday 18th February and resulted in defeat for Skryne. It has been a difficult start to the season for Skryne mainly because there are ten players missing for one reason or another from the team that reached last year's Championship semi-final.

Ratoath had several of their Meath players available with Bryan Mc Mahon proving too hot to handle for the Skryne defence with his pacy attacks posing a constant danger. Ratoath were in determined mood and had registered 8 points to Skryne's 2 by the midway point of the first half and Skryne certainly faced an uphill battle.

The game became more than physical at times and the referee had a difficult task to keep control and three players received their marching orders - two from Ratoath and one from Skryne - along with a flurry of yellow cards. When a Ratoath defender fouled Skryne's youngest player Paddy Carpenter he was shown the red card with Patrick O'Rourke also joining him on the sidelines for his retaliation to the same incident.

The Blues were five points behind at half time - 0-9 to 0-4 - but they could have been much closer. Niall Morley almost latched onto  a pass from  Skryne's best player Paddy Carpenter, which would have put him through for an almost certain goal.

Again in the second half Aidan Tuite was also unlucky to see his fisted effort for a goal crash back off the crossbar and away to safety. This along with a number of wides at a crucial point in the second half meant that Skryne were unable to reduce the deficit. Ratoath missed a few chances of their own but not nearly as many as Skryne.

Having said that you make your own luck in these matches and on this occasion Ratoath certainly deserved their victory as they were much the better team and more importantly they wanted it more than Skryne.

No blame for this defeat can be apportioned to Ian Gillett who was excellent in goals while Mark Harrington and Ciaran Lenehan tried their hardest in defence to stem the tide of the Ratoath onslaught. Up front Paddy Carpenter had his best game to date and got most help from Mark Battersby who is back to his accurate shooting ways. Colm Craigie, David Carroll and the younger generation made a good contribution following their introduction in the second half.

Skryne - Ian Gillett. Niall Lenehan, Mark Harrington, Declan Morley. Ronan McCabe, Ciaran Lenehan, Adam O'Sullivan. Aidan Tuite, John Morley (0-1). Paddy Carpenter, Patrick O'Rourke, Brian Davis (0-1). Paddy Fox. Mark Battersby (0-7), Niall Morley.

Subs used - Colm Craigie, David Carroll, Jason Fox, Michael Doherty, Cian Lynch and Andrew Moore. Barry Clarke (blood sub).

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