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23rd October 2018
05:49pm BST
The midfield battle between St. Mary's Luke Mooney & Senan Bolger, and Belgrove's, Senan Ryan & Harry Dignan was a joy to watch during the opening exchanges.
It wasn't long however before bustling corner forward Jack Kennedy made his presence known scoring a goal after ten minutes to put Belgrove firmly in the driving seat.
They say the best time to get a point is straight after a goal, and that's exactly what Belgrove did. After Kennedy's goal, the resulting kick out was won by inspirational centre back Luke O'Boyle who carried the ball all of 40 metres before popping off the Kennedy to score a point. 1-1 for the big corner forward in about 60 seconds.
From here on in, Belgrove turned the screw on St.Mary's who continued to miss opportunities when presented to them. Tom Higgins scored another goal for Belgrove before Senan Ryan's shot took an unfortunate deflection into the net.
Despite the set back, St. Mary's continued to battled hard with centre back Massimo Pappalardo putting in a wonderful block to deny Belgrove a score.
Gavin Lynch also made a terrific block, as the St. Mary's defence put their bodies on the line to try and prevent more scores.
There was also some fine score taking from Mooney and Conor Dillon.
Belgrove were just too good on the day. Kennedy bagged his second goal to bring his tally to 2-1, but it was midfielder Senan Ryan who stole the headlines. His midfield battle was awesome to watch. He caught kick outs, he defended, he attacked, he was everywhere on the day.
The goal of the game however came from half back Oscar Finnegan, the diminutive defender drove forward, broke a couple of tackles before driving the ball low and hard into the corner. Lynch had a fantastic game throughout, winning some primary possession for his team, and taking the right option every time.
It was a tough defeat for St. Mary's but they should hold their head's high, they performed admirably, and in the end luck was not on their side. They missed opportunities aplenty that on a different day would have sailed over the bar.
It was Belgrove's day though, and they fully deserved it.
St. Mary's BNS, Lucan
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