Castletown 0-12 St Abban’s Adamstown 0-06

The second of a double bill of AIB Leinster GAA Football Club Final saw St Abban’s Adamstown took on Castletown of Meath. After the dramatics and end to end nature of the first game this one had decidedly a more deliberate approach. Both sides looked to establish a solid base and retain possession as opposed to attacking at will.

The home side had much the better of the opening exchanges and a deft ball over the top led to a foul on Conor Hickey who duly tapped over the resulting free. The experience of centre back Michael Furlong came to the fore in the early stages, the Wexford County man broke from deep and was racing through the Castletown defense before being brought down. Hickey stepped up and clipped over his second to give them a 2 point to no score lead. 

These early set backs seemed to spark the visiting side into life and the Meath men took over for the remainder of the half. The impressive Kevin Ross got them off the mark when firing over an excellent free in the 10th minute. Then Adamstown Goalkeeper Alan Bradley had to use the full of his height to stop a speculative effort from Declan Cribbin after a kick out went astray, with Ross made no mistake from the resulting 45. Half back Killian Price then got in on the action as the rampaging defender fired over an impressive point. He was off the mark again shortly after thanks to the quick think of Ross. The sharp shooter opted to spread the ball the width of the pitch rather than attempt an acute angled free. Price proved this to be a good option and popped it over. 

It was that combination again which nearly led to the opening goal of the game. However, Price was this time denied by a fine save from Bradley and Ross tapped over the free earned in the process. Cribbin had the final say of the half as this time his effort resulted in a score for the half forward and sent the Meath men in with a 6 points to 2 lead. 

The second half was barely a minute old when the Wexford team got their first from play with the sharp Conor Hickey firing over again. This was almost as good as got as Price continued to torment the Adamstown defense and got his 3rd of the game. Ross and Killian Smyth added two more frees to the Castletown tally. Price went on one of his trademark runs in the 37th minute and set up what looked to be a sure fire goal. However, the shot from Cribbin came back off the post and into a thankful the Adamstown arms.

The Castletown side controlled the remainder of the game with considerable ease. The highlight for the Wexford men came when Hickey once again stepped up this time from a line ball just outside the 20 meter line. The marksman showed all his talent to split the posts with the outside of the boot, his individual brilliance was however not enough. Castletown looked the stronger all over with Killian Price and Kevin Ross adding the required class to see them win out by 6 points

Teams:

St Abban’s Adamstown: Alan Bradley, Ciaran Flynn, Lorchan French, Kevin Dunleavy, Andrew Boland, Matthew Furlong, Padraic Wickham, Graham O’Reilly, Tony French, Dean Kehoe, Paudie Barden, Sean Barden, Michael Curtis, Conor Hickey, Ruairí O’Brien.

Castletown: Jonathan Ginnitty, Noel Smyth, Evan Hoey, Adam Matthews, Killian Price, Shane Hey, Eoin Reid, Rian McConnell, Killian Smyth, Darren Finney, Gerard Farrelly, Damien Ginnitty, Mark Kelly, Kevin Ross, Declan Cribbin.

Scorers: 

St Abban’s Adamstown: Conor Hickey 0-06 (2F0

Castletown: Kevin Ross 0-06 (4F, 45), Killian Price 0-03, Killian Smyth 0-01 (1F), Damien Ginnitty 0-01, Declan Cribbin 0-01.