Donaghmore Ashbourne’s senior side completed a treble of wins this weekend for the club’s footballers with this Division 1 A League victory against local neighbours Ratoath. In a reversal of last year’s league result Donaghmore Ashbourne showed more attacking flair than Ratoath today and had 8 different scorers contributing. Shane Melia from midfield drove his team on and from the outset they laid a marker down. Gary Sweeney opened the scoring with a point inside 2 minutes and Paul Gilligan followed up with another on 7 minutes. Ratoath hit back with a point before Dylan Brady at full forward fired over on 16 minutes gone. Ratoath responded with a score but would not score again until the 24th minute by which time went on a scoring spree. Dylan Brady scored a well worked goal on 17 minutes and Stephen Carton slotted a free over a minute later. Points from play on the 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd from Gary Sweeney, Stephen Carton, Shaun Byrne and Paul Gilligan kept Ratoath on the back foot. A pointed free and two points from play from Ratoath kept the Donaghmore Ashbourne team on their toes. Gary Sweeney raced through to point again for the home side on 29 minutes and Ratoath responded in kind a minute later. Just when all thought the half time whistle would blow, Shane Melia sliced through the Ratoath defence line to hit the back of the net.
Halftime: Donaghmore Ashbourne 2-09 Ratoath 0-6
The second half started and on their first attack Donaghmore Ashbourne’s James Crumlish fired over. Ratoath immediately responded with a goal on the 33rd minute before Gary Sweeney scored his second point of the game. Ratoath came back again and having scored 2 points on the 10th and 11th minutes, they were dealt a hammer blow midway through the half when James Crumlish got on the end of well worked move to score the third goal. Shane Melia followed up with a point within a minute to leave the home side 10 points in front. Donaghmore Ashbourne introduced their substitutes in the final quarter. Ratoath gamely fought on scoring 2 points on 50 mins before Dylan Brady calmly slotted another over from play. Again, Ratoath hit back and scored 3 without reply in the last 2 minutes of the game before Darragh O’Sullivan pointed deep into added time. The game carried on and under more Ratoath pressure Jack Hannigan was called into action to make a last ditch stop with his feet to deny Ratoath another goal. The final whistle went to the delight of the home support who were very appreciative of the effort on the field. Another 2 league points secured and a clean sweep of wins for the club’s footballers over the weekend.
Fulltime: Donaghmore Ashbourne 3-14 Ratoath 1-13
A solid team performance from Donaghmore Ashbourne and hard to single out any individual as each contributed to a healthy score line in which all but one score was from play.
Donaghmore Ashbourne Team:
Jack Hannigan, Jack Giles, Alan Murtagh, Sean Curran, Conor Carton, Thomas McGovern, Paul Gilligan (0-2), Shane Melia (1-1), Killian Hogan, Shaun Byrne (0-1), Gary Sweeney (0-4), Darragh McGovern, James Crumlish (1-1), Dylan Brady (1-2), Stephen Carton (0-2, 1f).
Subs: Andrew Tormey for Byrne (45), Leo Reilly for Hogan (45), Colm O’Mealoid for Crumlish (53), Darragh O’Sullivan (0-1) for S. Carton (53), Iarlaith O’Donnell for Rea (55)