A-League Div 1 Rd7

I don’t know if it was the recent championship draw or the visit of the current county champions Wolfe Tones to Summerhill but this league game felt different to the previous game so far this year. Minds appeared to be more focused and there was a great intensity to what turned out to be a cracking contest between the two teams. Both teams were coming off good win in the previous round and were keen to keep in contention for a league final place.

The earlier rain has given way to bright sunshine as the game got underway. Points were exchanges early on but the visitors struck for a goal in the 12th minute to lead by 1-2 to 0-2. Summerhill re-established control of the match hitting 1-3 without reply to retake the lead. The Summerhill goal coming from a well struck Diarmuid McCabe penalty as well as a Conor Lyons free and two well worked scores from play from Eamonn McDonnell and Liam Shaw. Wolfe Tones finished the half strongly with four unanswered points of their own to go in at the break leading by the minimum 1-6 to 1-5.

Summerhill introduced 3 subs at half time, Iarla Hughes, returning county player Ronan Ryan and Adam Flanagan who was making his debut having recently joined the club. Summerhill took a grip on the game around the middle of the field and dominated possession as the half wore on. However, some tenacious defending from the visitors mixed with some wayward shooting by the Summerhill forwards did not see this dominance reflected on the score board. Wolfe tones were extremely dangerous on the break and kept right in contention with time running out. The sides were level as full time approached but with about a minute remaining Ronan Ryan scored a great point to put the home side in to the lead. The drama was not over yet and as referee Cormac Reilly was poised to blow for full time a bullet of a shot from a Wolfe Tones attacker cannoned back of the cross bar and was cleared to safety. The full-time whistle blew leaving the final score Summerhill 1-10 Wolfe Tones 1-9. Next up for Summerhill is a trip to Piltown to take on table toppers St Colmcille’s.

Team: Robbie McDonnell, Padraig Jennings, Caolan Young, John Lavelle, Padhraig Geraghty, Diarmuid McCabe (1-1, 1-0 pen 1f), Ross Ryan, Michael Byrne, Ciaran Gillespie, Liam Shaw (0-1), Conor Lyons (0-3, 3f), Kevin Ryan, David Dalton, Conor Frayne (0-3, 3f), Eamonn McDonnell (0-1).

Subs Used: Iarla Hughes for Caolan Young, Adam Flanagan for Ciaran Gillespie, Ronan Ryan (0-1) for Conor Lyons, David Larkin for Liam Shaw.

Adam Flanagan