Trim 2-8 Longwood 1-7

Trim Junior D Footballers beat last year's beaten finalist in a ding dong encounter played in Boardsmill on Sunday morning.

The Trim team were going into the unknown as they were relegated from Junior C last season having been hammered out the gate in every match. Managed by what has now become know within the club as  "The Dream Team" of Kenny "The Round Tower" Morgan, Rory "The Vinnys " Dowling and John "The Sheehy" Leonard the team got the Trim clubs first win in championship football this year.

Fielding  a team of  mixed ages and what can only be described as  the young, The little older and the lets say the very mature Trim got off to a great start and took the lead early on with a great point from the boot of young Ruaire Short. Trim never relinquished the lead from that point on. The management got the balance and the bled of the team spot on with experienced heads in every line. The point was followed up by Points from Sean Skinny McDonagh and Mark Murray . Longwood scored a couple of points to get into the game.

With five minutes to go in the first half Mark McCormack the Trim full forward gained possession fourteen yards out, dropped his left shoulder and went right, his marker bought the dummy and fell to the ground, just as Mark was just about to get away on him and in on goals his marker ankle tapped him inside the square to leave the referee no option but to award the Town side a penalty. Up stepped Mark Gilsenan to take the kick. No cooler man in this kind of situation and just has he has done on many accessions in the Red and White jersey over the years Mark left an unstoppable kick in the bottom right corner with the Longwood keeper left stuck to  his line. Trim were now totally on top and with McCormack wreaking havoc on the Longwood defence. Trim searched for another goal before half time. They got what they wanted on the stroke of half time when Ryan Andrews won possession in the centre of the field, gave a lovely pass to the ever green Mark Gilsenan who in turn popped an off the shoulder pass to youngster Ruaire Short, this pass left Ruaire straight in on goal with only the Longwood keeper to beat which he did unleashing an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net.

The second half was much in the same vein as the first with Trim the better team for most of it. Longwood did bring the scores back to leave just two points between the sides with ten minutes to play but the experience of players like Andy O'Brien Demo Dempsey Gilsenan , Darragh Kennedy, Skinny McDonagh, Richard Murphy, Jame Lee and Jamie Hackett kept Longwood at bay. Fit and fast young  players like Owen Englishby, Mark Murray, Ryan Andrews, Rurire Short, Connor Hallinhan, Tom Doyle, David Rennick lead the way for Trim throughout the match. Demo Dempsey was brought with five minutes to go to steady the ship, great to see him back after years of knee trouble.

A feature of this match was the way the management team rotated their team and subs. Andrew O'Brien was withdrawn after twenty minutes only to be reintroduced with seven minutes to play and scored a vital point in the last few minutes. David Rennick was taken off at half time and reintroduced to the fray with ten minutes left and his youth and exuberance was invaluable in the closing minutes.  This is surely a new tactic in Gaelic football, it will be interesting to see if any of the other management teams in the club adopt this successful tactic.

Trim: Sean Thornton, Andy O'Brien (0-1), Darragh Kennedy, Jamie Hackett, Adam Englishby, Jamie Lee, David Rennick, Mark Murray (0-1), Sean McDonagh (0-2), Ruaire Shortt (1-2), Richard Murphy, Conor Hallinan, Ryan Andrews, Mark McCormack, Mark Gilsenan. Subs: Conall McGreana, Demo Dempsey, Stephen Moriarty, Kevin Coleman, Tom Doyle

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