After their short break following their All Ireland Junior Quarter final defeat to eventual runners up John Mitchells, Moynalvey opened their 2009 Division 3 A league campaign with a defeat at home to Oldcastle on Sunday afternoon.
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Moynalvey 1 – 9 Oldcastle 1 – 12
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Oldcastle took the lead shortly after kick off with a point from their wing back & never looked back. The next score of the game came from Moynalvey’s centre forward John Donoghue to leave the scores level for the only time in the game. Oldcastle took control of the game for the next five minutes forging into a three point lead leaving the score at 0-4 to 0-1. Moynalvey closed the gap to two points with a Willie Byrne point, before taking the lead after a well worked move involving Donal Smith & John Donoghue which saw the ball eventually being finished to the net at the second attempt by Stephen Donoghue leaving the score 1-2 to 0-4 in favour of the home side.
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This was the only time Moynalvey led in the game as Oldcastle quickly regained the advantage within minutes after a well finished goal to leave it 1-4 to 1-2 after 15 minutes. The next three scores of the game came from the visiting side leaving it 1-7 to 1-2. Moynalvey responded with a pointed free from Willie Byrne before John Donoghue added an excellent point from play to leave three between them again. Byrne then added another pointed free in between two more Oldcastle points to leave the scoreline at 1-9 to 1-5 at half time.
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During the interval Moynalvey opted to make some switches, which seemed to have a positive effect on the restart, as they produced their most dominant spell of the game, with a pointed free from Willie Byrne, closely followed by another score from John Donoghue, before Byrne once again added another point from play to leave the minimum between the two sides midway through the second half. This was as close as Moynalvey got to their opponents, with Oldcastle regaining the advantage in the last ten minutes and tagging on the next two scores of the game. Moynalvey responded with a Willie Byrne point from a free to leave the final score 1-12 to 1-9 in favour of Oldcastle.
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Team & Scorers: O. Regan, A. Brien, P. Donoghue, P. Weldon, B. Dixon, D. Dixon, D. Durkan, S. Donoghue(1-0), D. Smith, S. Reilly, J. Donoghue(0-3), J. Weldon, D. Donoghue, W. Byrne (0-6), B. Gilsenan. Subs used: R Quinlan, C. Ennis, R. Kiernan, P. Garvey, G. Fagan.
