Moynalvey came away from Paddy O’Brien Park with the two points needed to avoid automatic relegation having defeated Navan O’Mahonys 3-13 to 0-12 in this Division 1 round 13 league game on Monday 9th July.
Navan O’Mahonys 0-12
Moynalvey 3-13
Travelling to Navan Moynalvey knew a win would at the very least guarantee them a relegation/promotion playoff place rather than automatic relegation. As it panned out Moynalvey finished level with two other teams Ratoath & Na Fianna which they had beaten and drew with earlier in the campaign, however an inferior score difference places Moynalvey into a relegation/promotion playoff against the 3rd place team in Division 2, Rathkenny.
The home side settled into this game with two points in the opening six minutes. The O’Sullivan brothers Cillian & Mark then burst into action hitting 1-3 between them, Cillian accounting for 1-2 and a booming point from Mark which took an eternity to curl between the posts, leaving it 1-3 to 0-2 after 13 minutes.
Points from David McLoughlin and Donal Smith either side of a David Bray point for O’Mahonys extended Moynalvey’s advantage to five, 1-5 to 0-3.
A David McLoughlin point in reply to four Navan O’Mahonys scores left the half time score board read 1-6 to 0-7 in favour of Moynalvey.
The margin between the sides was reduced to the minimum two minutes after the restart when O’Mahonys centre forward Dylan Regan pointed. However this was as close as the home side got to their opponents and a spell of 1-2 without reply between the 3rd and 6th minutes of the half opened Moynalvey’s advantage out to six points, 2-8 to 0-8, with points from Dan Treacy and substitute Fearghal McCabe and the goal coming from Shane Lenehan who was set up for a simple finish by the unselfish Cillian O’Sullivan.
A brace of O’Mahonys points reduced the deficit to 0-4, before David McLoughlin hit the home side for 1-4, 1-3 from play and executing a ’45 to leave the score 3-12 to 0-10 with 54 minutes played.
O’Mahonys points from Cathal Smyth and Dylan Regan either side of a point from Moynalvey substitute Sean Duggan saw Moynalvey run out comfortable winners on a 3-13 to 0-12 point score line.
While some players and supporters thought Moynalvey had done enough to avoid the relegation scrap, scores from other games emerging via social media indicated that Moynalvey had finished level on points with Ratoath and Na Fianna meaning points difference came into play when three teams are level, resulting in Moynalvey being placed into the relegation/promotion playoff due to their inferior score difference in comparison to the other two sides.
Best for the winners here were Cathal McCabe, Dan Treacy, Brian Harnan, Brian O’Reilly, Cillian O’Sullivan and top scorer David McLoughlin.
Moynalvey: David Brennan, Conor Harnan, Darren Brennan, Cathal McCabe, Brian O’Reilly, Brian Harnan, Dan Treacy (0-1), Donal Smith (0-1), John Donoghue, Stephen Donoghue, Cillian O’Sullivan (1-2, 1f), David McLoughlin (1-6, ’45), Shane Lenehan (1-0), Mark O’Sullivan (0-1), James Weldon.
Subs used: Fearghal McCabe (0-1) for M. O’Sullivan, Darragh Branigan for Weldon, Sean Duggan (0-1) for J. Donoghue, Shaun Deering for Lenehan, Conor Egan for Treacy.
