Gaeil Colmcille welcomed St. Peter’s, Dunboyne to Grangegodden for the second round of the PR Coyne & Sons A League Division 1. Manager Conn Cleary made some changes to the opening round defeat with the return of Seamus Mattimoe, Brian Hanlon and Daniel Farrelly to the starting XV, while Seamus Hannon made his first Senior start for the club.
Both sides shared the opening two points of the game with a free from Hanlon in the 4th minute getting Kells off the mark. Andrew Gormley pointed in the 8th minute and two minutes later Mattimoe made a bursting run through the Dunboyne defence to point and leave Kells two to the good.
Using the aid of the first half breeze, Dunboyne start to find their range and hit two two-pointers either side of a Hanlon free to lead by one point with 12 minutes played. A second point from Mattimoe left the sides level once more. Dunboyne then got a fortuitous goal on 14 minutes when an attempted point effort dropped short but the Dunboyne inside forward reacted quickest and pounced to fist the ball to the back of the net.
A Hanlon free was followed by another two two-pointers from the visitors to leave six between the sides with 25 minutes played. The lead stretched to seven before Oisin Walsh pointed to see Kells trail 0-07 to 1-10 at half time.
The early exchanges of the second half was sluggish and a single point from Dunboyne in the opening 10 minutes was all the scoreboard seen. With 42 minutes played, Dunboyne seemed to have the game wrapped up when they moved 8 points clear thanks to a point from play but credit but be given to the Kells men as they never laid down and a black card for a Dunboyne forward seemed to give the Gaeils a lift.
Kells rattled off three points in a row from Liam Ferguson, Hanlon and Walsh who was having a fine game at Centre-Forward. A goal arrived for Kells in the 51st minute when a ball fell kindly to Hanlon who volleyed the ball soccer style to the bottom corner to leave two between the teams. A 45 from Dunboyne stopped the rot for the South Meath as Gaeil Colmcille were playing with all the momentum. Hanlon added a 45 and Gormley got his second point of the game to leave one between the sides as the clock headed to added time.
With plenty of stop starts in the second half, Referee indicated there would be roughly 8 minutes remaining and in the 64th minute Hanlon levelled the game up with a free between the posts. The game was there for the taking for either side but it was the black and amber of Dunboyne that would clinch it with two points late on to bring the points back down the M3 while the Gaeils would rue an opportunity to get something out of the game after trailing by 8 points midway through the second half.
Gaeil Colmcille: Barry Farrelly, Fionn Smith, Adam Muldoon, Shane Callaghan, Jonny Quigley, Jordan Muldoon, Daniel Farrelly, Liam Ferguson (0-0-1), Seamue Mattimoe (0-0-2), Aaron Browne, Oisin Walsh (0-0-2), Andrew Gormley (0-0-2), Brian Hanlon (1-0-6), Seamus Hannon, Liam Barry.
Subs: Oisin Reilly, Liam Devine, Sean Cleary
