SFC: The best for last but all in vain

Dunboyne's Donal Lenihan

St Peters…2-15 Kilbride…0-11

Whilst writing the match report for Dunboyne’s SFC opening round draw against Rathkenny the point was made that their failure to close out the job on that evening would come back to bite them in the backside.

And, though they produced their best display of the entire season against the other side of the parish, Rathkenny running up as big a tally as was the case against the green and red meant David Gallagher’s team needed a miracle to advance.

Now, to a certain extent they did as much as they could, leading by 1-10 to 0-02 by half time. With a Charlie Gallagher free going straight to the next and points from the teenager and John Harkin and a handful thereof from Donal Lenihan.

The experienced full forward and the one most likely to be his apprentice (Harkin) and the burgeoning Eoghan McDonald continued the scoring rate. Indeed, Lenihan even raised a second green flag.

But in truth no matter what they clocked up, it was never likely to be enough. Especially when Davy O’Leary, Josh Harford and the introduced duo of Fiach Coffey and Warren Rogers got Anthony Moyles' side a bit closer and conversely left Dunboyne further away from the target set by Rathkenny.

Yes, from a Dunboyne perspective there was a glimpse of the hope there is for the future but for now, outside of the obvious disappointment, the overarching feeling was one of what might have been.

Yes in terms of their on- field efforts but perhaps even more so owing to being devoid of the services of Cian Smith, Cian Duggan, Ronan Jones, Jack Kinlough, Sean Delaney and David McEntee, among others, in some cases for the entire campaign. What’s another year!

ST PETERS – C. McCabe; J. Hayes, S. Lavin, C. O’Dwyer; C. McCormack, L. Byrne, M. Furlong; S. McEntee, C. Gallagher (1-1);  Eoin McCrudden, J. Harkin (0-4, 1×45), L. Carolan; E. McDonald (0-2), D. Lenihan (1-8, 1x2PT, 3F), M. Murphy.

SUBS – J. Gleeson for McCrudden, F. Watters for Byrne, C. Tobin for Furlong.

Referee – Andrew Smith (Dunshaughlin/Royal Gaels)