Moores hold off Maynooth fightback to take victory

Moorefield 2-10

Maynooth 1-11

When the draw for the group stages of the Joe Mallon Motors SFC was made a few weeks back this Group D was immediately tagged as the group of death so the opening games were always going to be vital and so it was Moorefield who emerged on top, just two points in it but in fairness if the Maynooth fightback had been successful it would have been a major setback for the boys in green.

Frank Hanniffy's men had played well throughout, particularly in defence but they also showed marked improvement further up the field while they more than held their own in the middle.

Maynooth will be very disappointed, especially after scoring 3-16 (and losing) in their preliminary game.

Mark Murray with an excellent 45m free opened for The Moores and while Sean Creevy leveled; Moorefield hit their opponents with a big body-blow when a long ball in from Ryan Moore was fetched by Jason Philips who finished with aplomb.

Mark Murray added a point; Cathal McCabe got the first of his five to leave it 1-2 to 0-2 on six minutes.

Adam Sweeney on as a temporary sub for a mere minute managed a point; Paddy Mahoney got his first.

An excellent run involving Ryan Houlihan, Aaron Masterson ended with Houlie pointing; Mark Murray added another while Cathal McCabe added a point as Moorefield led at the break 1-5 to 0-4.

Evan O'Brien and Chris Canning exchanged points before Moorefield found the net again; this time a Kevin Murnaghan 'centre' saw Harry O'Connor bravely get in ahead of Mark Donnellan to find the net. O'Connor was forced off injured after that goal.

Maynooth did not go away and hit three points, Mark Murray, free, replied before substitute Kevin Donovan was fouled and he duly dispatched the penalty to leave just four in it.

Eoin Meehan replied before Maynooth hit three in a row; the gap down to a point, 2-9 to 1-11 on 56 minutes.

All to play for before a brilliant run out of defence by Dylan Cosgrave set up Adam Tyrrell who made no mistake with a fine point, and that is how it ended, Moorefield deservedly holding out 2-10 Maynooth 1-11.

Scorers: Moorefield, Jason Philips 1-0, Harry O'Connor 1-0, Mark Murray 0-4 (2 frees), Evan O'Brien 0-2 (1 free), Ryan Houlihan 0-1, Adam Sweeney 0-1, Adam Tyrrell 0-1, Eoin Meehan 0-1.

Maynooth, Kevin Donovan 1-1 (penalty), Cathal McCabe 0-5, Paddy Mahoney 0-2, Sean Creevy 0-1, Sean Hever 0-1, Chris Canning 0-1.

MOOREFIELD: Tom Kinsella; Dylan Cosgrave, Mark Dempsey, Liam Healy; Padraig Cribbin, James Murray, Ryan Houlihan; Ryan Moore, Aaron Masterson; Eoin Meehan, Kevin Murnaghan, Harry O'Connor; Evan O'Brien, Jason Philips, Mark Murray. Subs: Anthony Durney for Padraig Cribbin (8 minutes); Adam Sweeney for Ryan Houlihan (bs 11-12 minutes); Adam Sweeney for Harry O'Connor (38 minutes); Dan O'Callaghan for Jason Philips (41 minutes); Liam Callaghan for Liam Healy (51 minutes); Adam Tyrrell for Kevin Murnaghan (50 minutes).

MAYNOOTH: Mark Donnellan; Daniel O'Meara, Niall O'Sullivan, Darren Maguire; Matthew Eustace, Paddy Brady, Sean Mahon; Paul Maguire, Ciaran Flanagan; John Flattery, Fionn Ó Giolláin, Sean Creevy; Paddy Mahoney, Chris Canning, Cathal McCabe. Subs: Kevin Donovan for Sean Creevy (half-time); Cillian Geraghty for John Flattery (half-time); Sean Hever for Chris Canning (50 minutes); John McAndrew (58 minutes).

REFEREE: Owen Murphy.