Gaeil Colmcille made the trip to the sunny East Coast to face St. Colmcille’s in the opening round of the LMFM Minor Football Championship Division 1.
The home side boasting seven of the Meath All-Ireland winning side got off to a bright start with a goal and three points inside the opening six minutes of the game with all the points coming from placed balls.
Two more points from Colmcille’s saw them take a 1-05 to 0-00 lead at the first half water break. Although Gaeil Colmcille hadn’t registered a score some good openings occurred for Ajay Tormey and Andrew Butler but their efforts failed to hit the target.
The pep talk at the water break Sparked a bit of life into the Gaeils and a direct ball from Tormey into the full-forward line was gather by Butler and he offloaded to the onrushing Jack Hogg who tore down on goal and as he got in to the penalty area his low shot was well saved by the Colmcille’s goalkeeper.
Kells would have to wait until the 18th minute for their first score, again hard work from the Gaeil Colmcille forwards and Tormey pointed to get the visitors on the scoreboard. With Gaeil Colmcille hoping the score would life the side it was quickly wiped away as Colmcille’s struck for a quickfire 1-01 to extend their lead.
Wing forwards for Gaeil Colmcille Tiernan Anderson and John Gormley both won frees and Andrew Butler excellently pointed to get the second and third score of the day for the Kells men with 24 minutes played. In the final six minutes plus injury-time both sides shared just two points as a Colmcille’s 45 and a wonderful point by Butler left the Seasiders 2-07 to 0-04 ahead at the break with credit going to the Kells backs for keeping St. Colmcille’s at such a low score despite the majority of the possession.
Two early second half points increased the lead to eleven points but Gaeil Colmcille looked certain to cut the gap by three points as Hogg found himself once again one on one with the keeper and as he went to strike the ball the Colmcille’s defender seemed to clip the foot of Hogg and to the amazement of the travelling support no penalty was awarded.
One minute later and Gaeil Colmcille had another penalty appeal waved away as Anderson went to pick the ball up inside the large rectangle and two hands on the attackers back pushed Anderson to the ground but the cry’s for a penalty fell on deaf ears. The hard working Kristapus Vitkausus was putting a tremendous shift and his hard tackling at full-back kept Kells in the game as the referee called a halt for the second half water break.
Division One experience told in the final quarter and a four points to one spell pushed Colmcille’s thirteen points clear as the clock headed for injury-time, a Tormey free for Kells seventh point of the day. A cruel ending to the game for Gaeil Colmcille as St. Colmcille’s put the foot down and goals in the 60th, 61st and 62nd minute left twenty-two points between which was cruel on the hard working efforts of Gaeil Colmcille team against a highly impressive side. Next up in round two for Gaeil Colmcille will be Donaghmore/Ashbourne who’ll make the trip to Grangegodden in two weeks time.
Gaeil Colmcille: Glen Gavagan, Michael O’Byrne, Kristapus Vitkausus, Bruno Griffin, Kilian Kelly, Finn Mullan, Rian Early, Oisin O’Reilly, Kevin Carpenter, John Gormley, Andrew Gormley, Tiernan Anderson, Andrew Butler (0-05), Jack Hogg, Ajay Tormey (0-02)
Subs: Sean Thornton, David Butler, Liam Barry, Aaron Glynn, Conall McGovern, Harry Flanagan
