Duleek Bellewstown 1-16 Castletown 1-8

Duleek Bellewstown secured the top spot in this Meade Farm Group Intermediate Championship Group B tie in what was in the end a comfortable win in a rain swept Stamullen on Saturday evening. Going into the game with two victories each a win was required to top the group as Castletown had the better score difference. And that outcome looked to be severely dented with the pre match late withdrawals of Shane Crosby and Sam O’Leary due to injury.

A torrential downpour thirty minutes before throw in made for a slippy top surface and which resulted handling and passing errors in the first half. With aid of the slight wind in was Castletown who opened the strongly and put the squeeze of the Duleek Bellewstown defense and they had a goal and a point on the board after just 5 minutes. James McWeeney then got the scoring under way with a free following a turnover in the Castletown defense.  Points from Eoghan Heeney and John MC Donnell had the deficit to a minimum before a pointed free from Castletown got them back on track.

After winning the resultant kickout on the right the ball was moved the John Flood and somehow he managed to evade a couple of tackles before laying off to John Mc Donnell who calmly slotted home A number of stoppages for injuries for the next 10 minutes brought about a stop start nature to the game and scoring was at a premium as both sides were guilty of wides and being turned over in the tackle. It was Castletown who broke their scoring drought with a pointed free on 23 minutes to bring the scores level.  With some poor shooting from Duleek Bellewstown against that tricky wind it was Castletown who closed out the half with two further points with a pointed free and a point from play in the sixth minute of injury time to go in to the dressing room with a two point cushion.

Whatever was said in the dressing room at the break had the desired effect and it was a more direct and focused approach to the start of the second period. The deficit was erased within two minutes with points from play from Darren Heeney and Eoghan Heeney.  A series of interceptions in midfield from Robin Clarke and Brian Fitzpatrick directly led to further points from James Mc Weeney and Elliot Lenehan. Casltetown’s cause was not helped by a black card after 8 minutes and from the resulting free the ball was moved to Jamie Crosby and he pointed and this was followed almost immediately with another Johnny Mc Donnell point to extend the lead to four after ten minutes.   

With the advantage of the extra man Duleek Bellewstown pushed forward and five  more points followed. A James McWeeney point from the left hand side, and two from John Mc Donnell, one of which came after a quick flick from Cianan Byrne kept the scoreboard ticking .  In a rare attack Castletown managed a point from play before another John Flood point had the gap at seven by the time that Castletown were back to their full complement.  A five point return for the ten minute spell.

Brian Fitzpatrick hit another of his trademark long range scores which was followed by a Castletown point from their impressive midfielder after he managed to evade a number of tackles and he pointed from thirty yards on the left. Having won the resultant kickout Alan Bowden worked the ball to Darren Heeney who fed Johnny Mc Donnell and he pointed off his left.  A further Castletown point after a forty five bobbled in the square for a few seconds and a John Mc Donnell free closed out the scoring as the clock turned over 30 minutes. 

Next up is a quarter final, the draw for which is on Monday night,where we play against one of the second placed teams from Group A , Group C or Group D. 

Duleek Bellewstown: R Lynch, C Regan, K McCann, C Kirwan, B Fitzpatrick, R Clarke, C Byrne, A Bowden, E Lenehan (0-1), D Heeney (0-1) J Flood (0-2) J Mc Weeney (0-3) J Mc Donnell (1-5), J Crosby (0-2), E Heeney (0-2), Subs O Miland, P Howard, D Collins,  C Flynn  

Tweet

Most Read Stories