Simonstown and Wolfe Tones senior teams contested a relegation dog fight in wet misty conditions on Thursday night in Paddy O Brien Park Navan. Tones edged out their neighbours and will remain in Division 1 for next year while Simonstown will ply their skills in Division 2.
Aaron Farrelly open the scoring for Simonstown with two points after great teamwork. Had one of his efforts being a little lower he would bagged a three pointer. Tones got of the mark with a pointed free. Michael Gavin surged forward from full back to split the posts and Simonstown led 0—3 to 0—1 after seven minutes. Tones pointed from distance and then from a turn over in their own half cut through the Navan mens defensive set up and rifled the ball to the net to put Tones 1—2 to 0—3 in front. Eoghan Gough tapped over but Tones replied with two long range efforts to lead 1—4 to 0—4 with twenty minutes played. Eddie Nash then blazed over the bar with the goal at his mercy. Tones had a productive spell and from difficult scoring positions added three points from play in four minutes to lead 1—7 to 0—5 with normal time up but Simonstown answered in injury time with Ben Hoey and Gough finding the range. As the teams went into the break Tones led 1—7 to 0—7.
Sean Conlon sent over for the Sky Blues in first action of second half. Tones upped the tempo and added three points (2Fs) to put five points between the teams 1—10 to 0—8 for second time in the contest at the end of third quarter. David McKeever and Tadgh Hanrahan replaced Shane McEnery and Jimmy Heaney. Simonstown were dogged and fought back with three scores from play by Ben Hoey ,Aaron Farrelly and Sean Tobin to claw back their deficit to just with ten minutes to play. We had eight minutes of stalemate with no scores but two turn overs by Tones in Simonstown half led to two frees which Tones converted and Tadgh Hanrahan sent over for the Navan men to leave 1—12 to 0—12 with time up. A high ball into the Tones square caused mayhem but was somehow scrambled to safety and the long whistle sounded. Eight Simonstown players got on the score sheet.
**Simons**; Robbie Burlingham,,Mark Devlin, Michael Gavin (0—1), Aaron Chinchilla..Eddie Nash (0—1), Briain Conlon, Brian McGrath...Sean Conlon (0—1),Sean Tobin (0—1),...Jimmy Heaney, Ben Hoey (0—2) Shane McEnery,..Aaron Farrelly (0—3), Padraig McKeever, Eoghan Gough(0—2).
Subs**; Tadgh Hanrahan(0—1) / J.Heaney...David McKeever/ S.McEnery...Stephen Moran/ M.Devlin...Shane Gallagher/ S.Conlon...Jack Melia/ E.Gough...
**Extd Panel; Peter Duffy, Luke Caffrey, David Kavanagh, Darragh Dooner, Eoghan Foley, Shane Kavanagh, Kyle McEvoy...
