FL Div 2: Early goals leave Michaels with a mountain to climb
June 17, 2024
St Michaels Paddy Fitzsimons with Eoin Finnegan Seneschalstown during the Division 3 FL clash at Fr. Tully Park
St. Michaels 0-11, Seneschalstown 4-08
Three majors in the opening 18 minutes served Seneschalstown well as they trumped visitors St. Michaels in what was a fine division 2 AFL contest on Saturday evening last.
The hosts were well worth their nine point winning margin but their success in bagging timely goals made their job much easier.
Both sides exchanged early points from placed balls with Gearóid O'Malley and Cian McFadden on target for the St. Michaels lads. Shane McDonnell put his side in front on six minutes after some good foraging work by Brian O'Reilly, however the home side got their opening goal two minutes later for a lead they would never relinquish and the St Michaels woes were multiplied by the retirement of their influential full forward Shane McDonnell through injury after only twelve minutes. Seneschalstown went on to add a further two goals in the next ten minutes, and while O'Malley kept the scoreboard ticking for the visitors the home side had built up a nine point lead when Sean Gahan blew the short whistle, 3-6 to 0-6.
A converted free in the third minute of the new half stretched the lead for the yellow furze side to ten points. St. Michaels hung in and points from Kuba Bidzinski (1), McFadden (3) and O'Malley (1) kept them in the tie until the home side bagged their fourth goal on 50 minutes to rule out any revival by the visitors.
St. Michaels team and scorers: Conor Gilsenan; Robert Briody, Ciaran O'Reilly, Brian O'Reilly; Daniel Murphy, Matthew Halpin, David Lynch; Paddy Fitzsimons, Harry Dunne; Cathal Walsh, Kuba Bidzinski (0-1), Declan Reilly; Cian McFadden (0-4), Shane McDonnell (0-1), Gearóid O'Malley (0-5).
Subs used: Paddy Tobin for McDonnell inj 12min, Mark Stafford for Dunne 38min, Luke Kelliher for Murphy 42min.
Referee: Sean Gahan
Match report and photo Pascal Reilly PRO.
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