A Duleek Bellewstown goal with 5 minutes remaining proved to be the key score in this B league Division 2 game played under lights in Donore on Wednesday night, March 5th.
Duleek/Bellewstown 3-10 Moynalvey 1-14
Moynalvey, missing a number of players for various reasons struggled to piece together a team for this game and indeed had to rely on aged 40 something senior team selector Zane Donogue dusting off the boots after a number of years in hibernation in order to make up the required 15 players. However, Zane and his teammates acquitted themselves well and will feel unlucky not to have got something from this game.
Playing with the aid of a strong breeze, Duleek/Bellewstown started well and scored a goal after 2 minutes. Moynalvey responded with a William Harnan point before the hosts tagged on 5 more points over the next 15 minutes in response to a Ray Ryan free for Moynalvey. Moynalvey then had their period of dominance and 4 points on the trot, two from Ryan and one each from Ciaran Ennis and Brian Conneely left the score at 1-5 to 0-6 after 25 minutes. A high ball into the Moynalvey square was then not dealt with and the hosts corner forward managed to fist the ball over Moynalvey keeper Giles Drumm to the net. Moynalvey responded well to this setback and a fine team moved ended with midfielder Shane Lenehan crashing the ball to the Duleek net. A point for each side, Moynalvey’s effort from Ennis, left the half time score at 2-6 to 1-7 in the hosts favour.
The first ten minutes of the second half were evenly matched with both sides adding 2 points each, both Moynalvey points from Ray Ryan. Moynalvey then started to dominate the game, and despite a number of missed chances, eventually edged ahead with 10 minutes remaining courtesy of points from Ennis and Ryan (2). Moynalvey were unlucky not to go further ahead when a Joe Munnelly effort on goal crashed against the post and were then made to pay for these misses when Duleek got their third goal with 5 minutes remaining to edged back ahead 3-8 to 1-12. Moynalvey reduced the gap to the minimum courtesy of 2 William Harnan points from play in response to a Duleek free but time ran out for the visitors and the hosts secured the points with a point in the last moments of the game.
Team & Scorers – G Drumm, B Byrne, D Kane, D Durkan, A Brien, P Conneely, D Brannigan, B Conneely (0-1), S Lenehan (1-0), F McCabe, C Ennis (0-3), R Ryan (0-7), Z Donoghue, W Harnan (0-3), J Munnelly.
