Brian Hanlon accounted for 1-05 for Gaeil Colmcille
With Pairc Tailteann ruled out, Gaeil Colmcille and Summerhill made the trip to Ashbourne to contest the 2019 JMB Sportsfields Feis Cup Final.
For anyone who thought Summerhill might have been wounded animals just seven days on from their Senior Final defeat to Ratoath had their answer early on when Summerhill burst out of the traps to land the first two scores of the game. A Brian Hanlon free in the 11th minute halved the Summerhill lead but just two minutes later and Summerhill found the back of the net to extend their lead to four points.
Seamus Mattimoe added a free but a slick Summerhill move saw them get their second goal of the game to lead 2-02 to 0-02 with 16 minutes played. Things got worse for Kells when wing-back James Reilly received his marching orders and the task of retaining the Feis Cup got a lot harder.
Kells was relying on the placed ball kicking of Hanlon and Mattimoe and a free each along with a 45 from Hanlon kept Kells in the game. Kells had to wait until the 27th to register their first score from play when wing-back Jonny Quigley popped up and hit over a lovely score to cut the lead to two points. Summerhill did get the final score of the half to see them take a 2-03 to 0-06 lead at the break.
Gaeil Colmcille would have hoped for a positive start to the second half but it was Summerhill who would get the first three scores to see the lead pushed out to six points. In the 38th minute, Gaeil Colmcille was given a lifeline after good running from Oisin Reilly, he got hauled to the ground for a penalty and Hanlon made no mistake and sent the Summerhill keeper the wrong way.
Two more frees by Hanlon and a super score from Mattimoe in the 44th minute and the sides were level. From the resulting kick-out, Mattimoe overturned the Summerhill back and turned and shot and remarkably Kells were ahead for the first time in the match.
The lead lasted less than 90 seconds when Summerhill got back on level terms straight away and took the lead once again a minute later. Credit to the Gaeil Colmcille players they never gave up and a fisted Mattimoe point followed by an outrageous Martin Barrett score saw Kells take the lead once more. With the wind in their sails, Gaeil Colmcille pressed the Summerhill kick-outs and efforts from Mattimoe and a Conal Courtney shot that just fell short kept Summerhill in the game.
With Summerhill soaking up all the Kells pressure they then applied their own and once they got level they pressed for the winner and a super score from just inside the 45 gave Summerhill the lead with the game heading into injury-time. As Kells hoped to get an equalizer it was Summerhill who got two more scores leaving Kells needing a goal to take it to Extra-Time and when a floated ball into the square by Hanlon was fisted wide the referee blew for full-time to see Summerhill take home the Feis Cup.
A good sporting game by both sides as Summerhill Captain Davy Dalton said in his acceptance speech that he knew it wasn’t the Cup either side wanted at the start of the year it was great to see both teams treat the game with the utmost respect. For Kells, not the way they would have liked to finish the year off with another trophy the can take solace in the fact they won the Division 1 League for the first time for the club in 25 years.
Gaeil Colmcille: J Carry-Lynch, J Muldoon, B Smith, A Muldoon, C Courtney, J Quigley (0-01), J Reilly, C Doogan, O Reilly, E Sheridan, M Barrett (0-01), L Ferguson, S Mattimoe (0-05), S Curran, B Hanlon (1-05)
Subs: B Tormay, P Ward, F Ferguson, R Farnham,
