Summerhill secured the bragging rights with a win against neighbours Na Fianna on Friday evening in Summerhill in round 6. of the Division 1 League. The game was played in glorious warm and sunny conditions which was welcomed by the supporters after all the bad weather earlier in the year.

The visitors opened the scoring with a point straight from the throw in but the home side replied immediately with a point from the Jamie O’Shea. Despite the huge effort been put in by both teams the game went almost 15 minutes without a further score. Na Fianna in particular been very wasteful in front of goals squandering a number of good scoring opportunities. Summerhill eventually broke the deadlock in the 16th minute when they scored their second point from midfielder Kevin Lyons. Na Fianna were dominating the scoring opportunities at this stage and eventually got their reward when they scored their first goal in the 19th minute of the half to take the lead. Two minutes later they got their second goal to extend the lead to five points. Both sides added a further point each to their tally as half time approached. On the stroke of half time Summerhill struck for their first goal of the game. A good pass from Connor Summerville found Jack Bannon in behind the Na Fianna defense and he coolly tapped the ball over the head of the out rushing Na Fianna keeper to bring Summerhill right back into the game. This left the halftime score Summerhill 1-3 Na Fianna 2-2. Considering the number of chances they had missed Na Fianna would have been disappointed at the break to be leading by only two points.

The visitors scored the first point in the second half, but Summerhill immediately replied with a point from Conor Summerville. Moments later the home side added their second goal of the match with a good effort from Sean Dalton to take the lead. The lead was short lived as straight from the resulting kick out, Na Fianna broke forward and scored their third goal of the game to retake the lead with a little over 5 minutes gone in the half. A Conor Frayne free cut the deficit, but two further points from the visitors stretched their lead to three points with 10 minutes of the half gone. An excellent Ben Moran point was cancelled out by another point from the visitors to restored the three-point lead with halfway through the half. Summerhill were slowly but surely starting to establish dominance in the game, particularly around midfield, and hit a purple patch added 1-3 without reply over the next 10 minutes. Summerhill’s 3rd goal coming from Conor Summerville along with points from Darragh Tormey, a Conor Frayne free and a good effort from substitute Many Magno. Na Fianna got their first score in almost 15 minutes when they added a point to cut the deficit to just two as we approached full time. Summerhill finally sealed the win with their fourth goal from Jamie O’Shea who fired to the bottom corner of the net having been set up by Kevin Ryan. A late point from the Na Fianna completed the scoring, leaving the final score. Summer Hill 4-9, Na Fianna 3-8. Next up for Summerhill Is a game against St Peters Dunboyne in two weeks time.

Team: Sean Muddiman, Ben Moran (0-1), Iarla Hughes, Jack Bannon (1-0), Darragh McVann, Conor Ryan, Jamie O’Shea (1-1), Kevin Lyons (0-1), Darragh Tormey (0-1), David Larkin, Barry Dardis, Kevin Ryan, Conor Frayne (0-2, 2f), Sean Dalton (1-1), Conor Summerville (1-1).

Subs: Manny Magno (0-1) for Dardis, Gavin McVann for Darragh McVann.

The game saw the team wearing their new McKeever jerseys. The new jersey’s looked great and reference the 50th anniversary of the clubs first Keegan Cup win in 1974.