Moynalvey comeback earns draw with Gaels

Moynalvey overcame a horrendous opening 20 minutes, after which they trailed by 7 points, to come storming back to earn a draw in this Junior C championship quarter final in Dunshaughlin on Tuesday, August 5th.

Moynalvey 1 - 9 Blackhall Gaels 2 - 6

The effects of the bank holiday weekend seemed to be taking its toll on Moynalvey early on as they looked very lethargic, missing a number chances and falling behind by 1 - 4 to 0 - 0 after 20 minutes. Moynalvey management needed to take some action and the switch of Paul Garvey and Shane Reilly between centre back and centre forward did exactly this with Garvey shoring up the defence and Reilly proving a constant thorn in the Blackhall defence for the remainder of the game.

Ciaran Ennis finally opened Moynalvey's account after 22 minutes of play and a further Ger McHale point left the half time score at 1 - 4 to 0 - 2 in favour of Blackhall Gaels. It could have been closer only for a fine save from the Blackhall keeper when Ennis was clean through on goal just before the half time whistle.

Moynalvey started the second half playing the type of football they are more than capable of. Ray Ryan pointed from play before a long ball in was gathered by Giles Drumm who buried a cross shot to the back of the Blackhall net to leave the score at 1 - 4 to 1 - 3. Blackhall responded with a point before 3 successive Moynalvey points from Ennis (2) and Shane Collins put the men in maroon ahead for the first time on a scoreline of 1 - 6 to 1 - 5 with 15 minutes remaining.

Blackhall dug deep at this stage and scored a fine goal to push 2 clear before a point from Shane Collins and a huge effort from Shane Reilly left the scores tied at 2 - 5 to 1 - 8 entering the final five minutes. Blackhall again pointed to push ahead before Shane Reilly scored another fine point to level matters at 2 - 6 to 1 - 9 as the game entered injury time. Moynalvey had two long range frees in injury time to win it but both drifted narrowly wide and so the game ended all square with a draw the fairest result after an exciting contest. Both sides will now have to do it all again in a replay.

Best for Moynalvey were David Durkan and Willie Mahady who had a fine game in defence, Benny Dixon in midfield and Shane Reilly, Ciaran Ennis and Ray Ryan up front.

Team & scorers - C Dunne, S White, Z Donoghue, D Durkan, S Courtney, S Reilly (0 - 2), W Mahady, P Corcoran, B Dixon, C Ennis (0 - 3), P Garvey, S Collins (0 - 2), R Ryan (0 - 1), G McHale (0 - 1), G Drum (1 - 0). Subs - J Duffy for S White, L Duffy for G Drumm, B Griffith, G Craig, P Kiernan, D Hoban.