Minors v Cill Chomain–Division 4 League Final – Match Report
Davitts 1-12
Cill Chomain 1-8
When those two sides earlier on in the Minor League Div 4, Davitts ran out the winners by seventeen points in a game played in Ballindine. On Bank Holiday Monday they met again in the League Final with Davitts again coming out on top by four points, after a much tighter game played in Knockmore in ideal conditions.
Points from Stephen Nyland (2), Zack Keadin and Fenton Kelly had Davitts ahead by 0-4 to 0-1 after ten minutes. Both defences were doing well as the scores were becoming harder to come by. Cill Chomain narrowed the deficit to a single point with converted frees in the 17th and 22nd minutes before Jack Devane fired over a super point in the 24th minute to put Davitts two up. Stephen Nyland extended the lead to three and Cill Chomain shot the half’s final score in injury time to leave Davitts ahead by 0-6 to 0-4 at halftime.
Stephen Nyland and Thomas Ronayne had early second half points for Davitts before Cill Chomain pulled one back. Niall Treacy, now becoming the game’s most influencial player, shot Davitts further clear with a point in the 8th minute. Cill Chomain pointed twice in quick sucession but in the 11th minute Davitts got the game’s crucial score, a Niall Treacy goal to put his side five points ahead. The goal started with Charlie Phillips long delivery being flicked on by Jack Trench to Stephen Nyland who in turn fed the strong running Gary Bourke. He offloaded to Treacy who took one solo before rifling the ball to the roof of the net for a cracking goal.
Cill Chomain narrowed the gap with a 12th minute point but three Davitts points in the 16th, 17th and 18th minutes from Stephen Nyland, Niall Treacy and Sean Feerick gave Davitts breathing space as they looked set to power on.
Niall Treacy, rather unluckily, picked up a second yellow card with eleven minutes remaining, and Davitts had to defend desperately until the final whistle. Cill Chomain converted a penalty with eight minutes remaining but they failed to score in the closing minutes due to some outstanding defending by the entire Davitts team, who held on to win by four points.
Cill Chomain put up a tremendous battle but Davitts took the title, with team captain Stephen Nyland accepting the trophy on behalf of his team afterwards.
Joe Prendergast was excellent in goals for Davitts with the marauding Thomas Ronayne (0-1) in top form in defence. He got great assistance from Charlie Phillips, Gary Bourke, Sean Feerick (0-1), Oisin O Connor, Fionan Gallagher and Micheal Hett.
Stephen Nyland (0-5) and Fenton Kelly (0-1) edged the midfield exchanges.
Up front Niall Treacy (1-2) demonstrated yet again why he is such a highly rated player until his dismissal. Jack Trench, Zack Keadin (0-1), Jack Devane (0-1), Daniel Corless, Bon Glynn, Jack Melvin and Cathal Corless all worked tirelessly to ensure that the title came Davitts way.
Well done to the management quartet of Liam Nyland, Derek Byrne, Lawrence Daly and Tommy Ronayne.
