St. Jude’s 0-11
Ballyboden St. Enda’s 3-10
It was a short trip across the Dodder for the Boden intermediate football team on Saturday. Humbled by our hosts in last year’s championship semi-final on the same Tymon pitch memories had to be quickly erased.
With weekends away now part of our planning it was time to introduce new players to the fray. The first quarter revealed our unfamiliarity with each other on the pitch but we managed to stay in touch. A few small adjustments improved matters in the second quarter and the half finished with honours even. A combination of wides, shots dropping short and poor passing held us back on the scoreboard. 1-2 was a small return for the first half efforts.
A bit of soul searching at half time and incisive contributions from the elder statesmen of the team sought to re-purpose our playing style. Some fresh legs were introduced at the break to liven matters up.
Before we had evidence of improvement one of our number received the dreaded black card. This certainly wasn’t in the script but it had the effect of galvanising the troops who began to treat every possession as rare gift. Suddenly our scoring switch was flicked and the scoreboard started to roll. Simple deliberate passages of play yielded rewards and we hit the back of the Jude’s net on two occasions. At last a bit of daylight.
But we couldn’t rest, this was a strong home team with talent and sharp-shooting ability. A couple of late interventions by our guardians of the goal prevented serious inroads into our lead.
The game rumbled on through the final quarter with the sides exchanging scores. All subs used, everyone fit and able got game time. Boden eventually running out winners with an eight point margin.
Best wishes to the two Johns (McGinn and McGuire) who are facing layoffs following injuries a fortnight ago.
Panel: Stephen McGrath, Conor Hanrahan, Scott Cullen, Karl Reddy, John Murphy, Oisin Carolan, Tommy Burke, Neil Hester, Conor Lowe, Keith Sweeney, Eoin Behan, Colly Dunne, Luke Byrne, Eoghan Monahan, Ruairi Kirwan.
Mark McNamee, Ryan O’Dwyer, Mikey Dunne, Rob Cullen, Fionn Maguire, Enda Cashman, David Leach, Evan Flanagan, Sam Lally, Emmet Doogan, Daragh Kilduff, Dillon Ward, Mark Walsh, Ciaran Archbold, Josh Kane, John McGinn, John McGuire, Jack Lambert, Dylan Walsh, Eoghan Gannon.
