Venue:- Grangegodden  at 7pm

HT  Gaeil Colmcille 0-6  Donaghmore/Ashbourne 1-6

FT  Gaeil Colmcille 0-14  Donaghmore/Ashbourne 1-10

On a night when a lot of people were glued to the television watching Mayo beat Dublin in an All-Ireland Semi Final there were also some people on the sideline in Grangegodden glued to their mobile phone screens watching and cheering as they watched our old rivals Dublin get overturned by a very good Mayo side.  This did not take away from the entertainment of a match well contested between Don/Ash and Gaeil Colmcilles.  There was some really good football played by both teams and it showed in the end that experience counts an awful lot in a tight game coming up to 60 minutes on the clock. 

Don/Ash got off to a flying start and scored 1-3 in the first 10 minutes with points coming from the boot of Ethan Tormey (2 frees) and Simon Wilson who was on fire and scored 1-2 which was led by Colin Lynch from midfield and very good work from our half backs Shane Rea, Ethan Tormey and Matt Crumlish. Gaeil Colmcilles replied with 2 points from Barry Farrelly and Danny McGovern.  Kevin Cully and Ronan Jones also tagged on points from play to leave it 1-5 to 0-2 at the first water break.  Some people talk about the water breaks breaking momentum and it certainly seems like this for Don/Ash who only scored 1 point from Simon Wilson who won a great mark from a ball kicked in from Joe Magee but the home side added on 4 points from the ever present Danny McGovern (3 2f) and Daniel Farelly (1) to leave the sides with the only goal of the match dividing them at half time.  

Gaeil Colmcille started where they left off and scored 2 points in the first 2 minutes before Faolan Smyth got on the board after 5 minutes from play. Tormey hit the post from a 45 and Ruairi McCann who latched on to the rebound just couldn't get it between the post to make it count.  We stayed ahead with points and good play from Sam Benville. Smyth tagged on another and sub David Keenan added to the score but it just wasn't enough to get the win as Gaeil Colmcille showed all their experience when winning frees in good positions and it was easy for Barry Farrelly (3f) to slot them over in the dying minutes of the 2nd half.  Don/Ash probably deserved a point from this game but it wasn't to be. It is never easy travelling to Grangegodden and getting a win but for a long time in this match it certainly looked like this was going to happen.  There will be better days for this team and I have to mention Danny Deery who won a lot of ball in the full forward line, David Carr, Luke Barrett on our full back line and our goalkeeper Jack Hannigan who pulled off a great save in the 2nd half.  

Don/Ash:-  Jack Hannigan; Luke Barrett, David Carr, Rodney Jones (0-1); Shane Rea, Ethan Tormey (0-2 2f), Matt Crumlish; Colin Lynch, Joe McGee; Faolan Smyth (0-2), Sam Benville (0-1), Kevin Cully (0-1); Danny Deery, Simon Wilson (1-2), Ruairi McCann;  Subs:- David Keenan (0-1) for McCann and David Carey for Deery.