Moynalvey went down to St. Patricks by eight points in this final round group A game of the Hoganstand.com Senior Football Championship played at Dunshaughlin on Saturday September 8^th.

Moynalvey 3-8 St. Patricks 6-7

With Moynalvey’s championship campaign already over and St. Patricks guaranteed progress to the knockout stages an under strength Moynalvey side found it hard to motivate themselves for this tie. Moynalvey opened the scoring in the first minute with a Mark O’Sullivan free kick but sixty seconds later St. Patricks took the lead when finding the net. Moynalvey responded with a fine score from wing half back Anthony Forde but found themselves four points behind after just seven minutes as Pats second score was another goal. Another O’Sullivan free for Moynalvey in the 12^th minute narrowed the deficit to three points. Pats then went on a scoring spree clocking up 1-3 before Moynalvey registered their fourth point of the game in the 26^th minute, leaving the score board reading 3-3 to 0-4 in favour of the East Meath side. O’ Sullivan opened his account from open play in the 29^th minute to leave seven between the sides, 3-3 to 0-4. Just as the half time whistle loomed St. Patricks went on another scoring spree in injury time, rounding off their first half goal fest to hold a massive 14 point lead at the interval on a 5-4 to 0-5 score line.

Pat’s started the second half as they had left off the first, posting the first two points of the second half to lead 5-6 to 0-5. However Moynalvey tightened up their rearguard in the second period and held their opponents scoreless between the 32^nd and 58^th minutes, while adding 3-2 to their tally narrowing the deficit to six points with two minutes of normal time remaining. Mark O’Sullivan took his personal tally to 1-4 when he netted in the 3^rd minute of the second half and sent over a sublime sideline kick two minutes later. Almost 15 minutes passed before the games next score arrived when Moynalvey midfielder Stephen Donoghue sent over after receiving a superb cross field pass from substitute Darren Brennan, who had taken to the field to replace the badly injured Luke Duffy who was stretchered off the field. A late burst from Moynalvey in the final 10 minutes saw Mark O’Sullivan find the net for a second time, before he provided the assist for substitute William Harnan to rattle the net, leaving the score board reading 5-6 to 3-7 with four minutes remaining. St. Patricks fired over a free before converting a penalty in the final minute to leave the final score reading 6-7 to 3-8 in favour of the Stamullen men.

Best for Moynalvey were Anthony Forde, Padraig Donoghue, Stephen Donoghue and Mark O’Sullivan.

Moynalvey: O. Regan, R. Kiernan, P. Weldon, W. Mahady, A. Forde (0-1), P. Donoghue, B. O’Keefe, S. Donoghue (0-1), D. Smith (0-1), L. Duffy, M. O’Sullivan (2-5), D. Donoghue, C. Ennis, K. Hyland, J. Kelly. Subs: D. Brennan for Duffy, P. Conneely for D. Donoghue, W. Harnan (1-0) for Hyland, A. Brien for Kiernan.