St Mel’s Longford win tough battle against Marist Athlone
Leinster Schools Senior ‘A’ Football Championship Group Stage - Round 3
St Mel’s College . . . 0-11 Marist College Athlone . . . 1-5
Minus a couple of key players in Paddy Moran (Killoe) and Conor Flynn (Clonguish), the Longford college had to work extremely hard to come out on top and their reward is home advantage against St Mary’s Edenderry in the knockout stage (last 16).
While Marist piled on the pressure in the early stages of what was a must win match for the Athlone College after losing to Colaiste Choilm Tullamore in the previous round, they were guilty of squandering a few scoring chances and ended up trailing by 0-6 to 0-1 at the break.
The Flynn brothers Cormac and Michael accounted for five of the points (3 frees) with defender Kevin Baskett also on target but Marist made a great start to the second half to level matters after shooting 1-2, the goal coming from Kealan Connell with four minutes gone on the changeover.
Showing a lot of spirit, courageous St Mel’s got back on top in adding another five points to their tally through Kevin Baskett, Michael Flynn (3) and Jamie Dorr while the resolute defence was splendidly marshalled by commanding centre-half-back Andrew Flynn as Marist were restricted to just two more points.
ST MEL’S COLLEGE: Stephen Oates (Grattans); Paddy Clancy (St Brigid’s Killashee), Paul Eivers (Killoe), Mark Cooney (Clonguish); Cormac Flynn (Kilmore, Clonguish), Andrew Flynn (Clonguish), Kevin Baskett (Clonguish, 0-2); Jamie Dorr (Clonguish, 0-1), Daniel Carey (Clonguish); Enda Quinn (Killoe), Harry Mulvihill (Grattans), Davin Donnelly (Killoe); Cormac Flynn (Clonguish, 0-3, 2 frees), Paddy Mollaghan (St Brigid’s Killashee), Michael Flynn (Clonguish, 0-5, 2 frees).
Subs:- James Hagan (Clonguish) for P Mollaghan (half-time); Conor Doherty (Killoe) for D Donnelly (47 mins); Alan Mimnagh (Clonguish) for P Eivers (stoppage time).
MARIST COLLEGE ATHLONE: Luke Nicholson; Andrew Henson, Josh Kenny, Owen McNamara; Liam Staunton, Killian Redmond, Adam Smyth; Callum Kelly, Tadhg Baker (0-1); Daire O’Connor, Kian Mitchell (0-1), Finn Duffy; Andrew Stuart Trainor (0-2, frees), Kealan Connell (1-1, point from mark), Conor Dowling.
Subs:- Thomas Bourke for F Duffy (half-time); James McHugh for D O’Connell (43 mins); Charlie O’Carroll for C Dowling (56 mins).
Referee: Enda Kenny (Westmeath).