Date: 2018-04-15Code: FootballAge Category: Junior FootballVenue: KilberryThrow in time: 12.00Dunboyne V: Meath HillStarting 15: Paul BradyShane MoranDarren DunneConor RohanJamie GilmartinMichael ReillyAlan WattersNiall WattersFergal O\'Neill Neil Hackett Seán MoranSeán Quigley Niall SmythMark O ConnorConor Gilmartin Half Time Score: Dunboyne 0.05 Meath Hill 0.07Full Time Score: Dunboyne 0.13 Meath Hill 0.08Scorers: Conor Gilmartin 0.08 (0.07 frees), Neil Hackett 0.03, Mark O\'Connor and Seán Quigley 0.01 each.Subs Used: Keith Doyle for Jamie Gilmartin, Paddy Kelly for Michael Reilly, Joe McWeeney all 35 mins, Colm Ahearn for Shane Moran 50 minutes.Talking Points: Junior D complete winning weekend for St.Peters.
The club\'s Junior D team took on Meath Hill in Kilberry in the first round of the Junior D championship and followed the pattern of the club\'s 3 other adult teams and our Ladies senior footballers with an opening round win over Meath Hill. It was a first outing for manager Jim Watters who is Uncle, Neighbour or potential father in law to 3/4 of the team, he was well supported by his son Brian and his non-stop Grandson Jamie, who gathered balls from behind the goals and kept the whole team watered during the game. Much like some of the players after the Winter break the ground was heavy and there was a strong wind blowing straight down the pitch for most of the game. It was as big a crowd as this team has played in front of in 3 years with almost 35 supporters in attendance in Kilberry.
Captain Niall Watters elected to play against the wind in the first half in the full knowledge that the wind was to pick up by 2mph in the second half and it proved to be a shrewd plan.
The first half began with Dunboyne getting off to a 2 point lead early on before being pegged back to 3 points each after 15 minutes.
The Dunboyne lads were showing some rustiness with balls being handpassed straight over the sideline and frees from the middle of the field being kicked over the sideline in the Corner, but not everything Sean Moran and Alan Watters did were terrible in the first half. Alan did play a great ball into Niall Smyth who at great speed shouldered the ball back over Alan\'s head straight to a Meath Hill player. Dunboyne kept in touch to trail by 7 points to 5 at half time, thanks in no small part to some great saves from Paul Gunner Brady, one memorable save in particular where he dove out to save a bounce from one of the Meath Hill half forwards.
Dunboyne opened the second half with scores from both Mark O\'Connor and Neil Hackett to reduce the deficit and with Conor Gilmartin un-erring from frees they soon took the lead.
Some new rules were causing the Dunboyne lads some concern, such as if you are wearing black and Amber you must compete with 3 opposing players for throw ins, sideline have to be picked from outside the fence and it is only a free when your team pick up the ball twice in a row.
Alan Watters, who has no doubt been taking tips from his partner Fiona gave a couple of pinpoint passes in the second half and unlike other years it actually looked like he meant them. Joe McWeeney, Keith Doyle and Paddy Kelly all made big contributions in the second half when introduced and Joe was unlucky with a couple of goal chances. Paddy Kelly covered some ground but not as much as his dad Larry who was busy fetching balls from behind the Meath Hill goals for all of Dunboyne\'s 8 second half scores. Conor Gilmartin closed out the second half scoring with 3 frees to give Dunboyne a deserved win, while Darren Dunne and Colm Ahearn had to be content with fixing divots at the clubhouse end for the closing few minutes. All round it was a good win for this team with 19 players getting a run out, the 35 minutes our returning Junior B\'s got will stand to them as they get to grips with the pace and skill levels at Junior D.
