2008 Louth Division 3 League Round 13

Date: Sunday 2nd November, 2008
Venue John Markey Park, Ballygassan
Time: 11.30am

Naomh Fionnbarra 1-06 Dundalk Young Irelands 1-03

We headed to Ballygasson for the last round of League games on Sunday morning knowing that one point would secure promotion to Division 2. It didnt materialise however as we produced our worst league performance of the season and lost out by three points.

Derek Maguire opened the scoring with a pointed free. The home side settled better however and scored 0-3 before Derek got our goal on 21 minutes after winning a high centre from Sean Laverty. The football was poor in the opening half with the major talking point being Derek Maguires red card three minutes after his goal following an altercation with a Fionnbarrs defender.  

Half-time Young Irelands 1-01 Naomh Fionnbarra 0-03

The standard of football did not improve in the 2nd half with both teams playing below par. It took 10 minutes for the first score to arrive from Bernard Osbourne and a further 10 minutes before Andrew McCann grabbed a goal for Fionnbarrs which turned out to be the vital score of the low scoring game.

David Lally scored a point for Irelands when introduced while the goal we needed never arrived with the Togher keeper making good saves from Ciaran Conlon and Andrew Nixon. Peter Nixon did send over a pointed free in the closing minutes however Peter Markey sealed Fionnbarrs win with a brace of points.

After the game, it was par for the course that the referee was used by Irelands as the scapegoat rather than taking responsibility for our own problems. Personally I dont think the referee was responsible for our inept performance and we should concentrate on why we underperformed. Indiscipline, panic and the lack of cool heads on and off the field were, in my opinion, the main reasons behind this defeat.

For Irelands Shane O'Connell, Aaron Rogers and Mark Savage tred hard. John Doyle, Shane Fanning, Peter Markey and Andrew McCann were best for the home side.

Young Irelands are now joined in a three way play-off with Fionnbarrs and Dowdallshill by virtue of the latter two receiving walk-overs. When a competition can be manipulated it is not a fair system. DYI did place a motion at the 2007 Louth Convention in relation to walk-overs however it was ignored.

All is not lost however. We didnt become a bad team overnight and if we can iron out a few areas of concern we are right in there with a very good chance of promotion.

Dundalk Young Irelands
Craig McKenna, Shane O'Connell, Simon Flynn, Peter Flynn, Robbie Farrell, Aaron Rogers, Peter Nixon (0-1)f, Andrew Nixon, Gerard Nixon, Sean Laverty, Derek Maguire(1-1)1f, Michael Shields, Ciaran Conlon, Conor Nixon, Mark Savage.
Subs used: Sean Rafferty for Conor Nixon, David Lally (0-1) for Sean Laverty, Ryan Moran for Sean Rafferty

Naomh Fionnbarra
Alan Matthews, Trevor Dolan, Gerard Leonard, Colin McGrane, Fergal Leonard, Hugh McGrane, Padraig Butterly, John Doyle, Shane Fanning, Ciaran Murphy (0-1), Peter Markey (0-2), Bernard Osbourne (0-2)1f, Stuart Osbourne, Andrew McCann (1-1), Paul Bannon.

Referee: Patsy Connolly (St. Mochtas)