A draw was of no benefit to either Moynalvey or Duleek/Bellewstown in this penultimate round Group A game of the Hoganstand.com Meath Senior Football Championship played in Ratoath on Sunday afternoon September 2nd.
Moynalvey 0-14 Duleek/Bellewstown 2-8
Duleek/Bellewstown got off to the perfect start after just 90 seconds when they found the back of the Moynalvey net. By the time Moynalvey opened their account with a Barry O’Keefe point Duleek/Bellewstown had added a further 0-2 leaving the score line reading 1-2 to 0-1 after 8 minutes. The sides then traded scores with Moynalvey’s effort coming from midfielder Stephen Donoghue before a brace of points from Duleek/Bellewstown left six between the sides after 14 minutes of play. Moynalvey’s third score of the game came in the 16th minute when a piercing run forward from the midfield area by Anthony Forde set up Ken Hyland for a goal chance only to see his effort blaze over the cross bar for a point instead. A Mark O’Sullivan pointed free for Moynalvey along with two more points for Duleek/Bellewstown from county player Mark Collins before the half time whistle left Moynalvey facing a six point deficit at the break, 1-7 to 0-4.
At the interval Moynalvey sprung Ciaran Ennis and Donal Smith from the bench in place of James Kelly and Barry O’Keefe respectively. The changes proved to be effective for the men in maroon and white as Smith began to dominate proceedings around midfield while Ennis recorded 0-4 in his 30 minutes on the field. Moynalvey completely dominated the second period completing a 10 point turnaround to lead by three points in the final minute of normal time, while in the process limiting Duleek/Bellewstown to a single point in 30 minutes of the second half. Substitute Ennis began Moynalvey’s second half scoring when sending over a free in the 32nd minute while sixty seconds later Mark O’Sullivan fired over. A further two points from Ennis and a trio of O’Sullivan efforts drew Moynalvey level with their opponents 0-11 to 1-8 with eight minutes remaining. Moynalvey took the lead for the first time in the 54th minute when Ken Hyland fired over his second point of the afternoon. Sixty seconds later Daniel Treacy split the posts before Ciaran Ennis land a ’45 leaving Moynalvey three points to the good with two minutes of normal time remaining.
Despite having several chances to put more than a single score between the sides a combination of bad wides and wrong shot selection cost Moynalvey dearly in the end as they couldn’t register that extra score to safe guard their lead. A high ball into the Moynalvey goal mouth area in additional time broke to a Duleek/Bellewstown man who volleyed to the net from close range leaving Moynalvey heartbroken at the final whistle after their rousing second half performance. A draw was of no benefit as victory needed to be guaranteed to maintain Moynalvey’s interest in this year’s Championship and to ensure next weekend’s final round group game against St. Patrick’s would be decisive as to who would progress from the group to the quarter final stage.
Best for Moynalvey were Anthony Forde, William Mahady, Padraic Harnan, Daniel Treacy, Stephen Donoghue, Donal Smith and Ciaran Ennis.
Moynalvey: O. Regan, P. Donoghue, P. Weldon, A. Forde, W. Mahady, P. Harnan, D. Treacy (0-1), S. Donoghue (0-1), J. Donoghue, D. Brennan, B. O’Keefe (0-1), D. Donoghue, M. O’Sullivan (0-5), K. Hyland (0-2), J. Kelly. Subs: D. Smith for O’Keefe, C. Ennis (0-4) for Kelly.
