Summerhill took on Ratoath in the fourth round of the Division One League in Summerhill. On Saturday evening. Given all the recent rain, it was touch and go whether the game would go ahead at all. The pitch was in decent condition despite the recent weather. As usual when these sides meet, this turned out to be a tight tense game with very little in it. 

This was always going to be a game of two halves, with a strong wind blowing directly down towards the clubhouse end of the field. Summerhill had the benefit of the wind in the first half and knew that they would need a lead to carry into the second half. 

Summerhill’s cause was not helped when cornerback Ben Moran received a black card with only two minutes on the clock. Summerhill opened their account in the 7th minute with a Connor Frayne point. From the resulting kick out Jamie O’Shea added a second with an excellent point from play. The visitors opened their account in 12th minutes to cut the deficit. The home side hit three points in a row to extend the lead to four after 20 minutes. Two pointed frees from Ratoath cut the deficit in the run up to halftime. And another free from Connor Frayne on the whistle left the halftime score, Summer Hill 0-6 Ratoath 0-3. 

An early Ratoath point in the second half was answered to by two more frees from Conor Frayne to push the lead out to four points. Summerhill were having difficulty playing into the strong wind and were wasteful in front of goals, missing a number of scoring opportunities as they struggled to come to terms with the conditions. The visitors defended in numbers and hit on the break, kept chipping away at the lead and scored five points without reply to lead by two with five minutes remaining. A late Connor Frayne point, Summerhill’s first for over 20 minutes, cut the deficit to just a single point as the clock. headed into the red. Summerhill went in search of an equalizing score but were unable to get it before referee David Coldrick sounded the full-time whistle to leave the final score. Summerhill 0-9 Ratoath 0-10. 

Team: Sean Muddiman, Ben Moran, Iarla Hughes, John Lavelle, Diarmuid McCabe, Conor Ryan, Jamie O’Shea (0-1), Adam Flanagan, Michael Byrne, David Larkin (0-1), Kevin Lyons, Kevin Ryan, Conor Frayne (0-6, 5f), Sean Dalton (0-1), Barry Dardis.  

Subs:  Jack Bannon, Padhraig Geraghty, Jack Davies.