Easy victory for O'Mahonys

The SFC battle of Navan turned out to be nothing more than a one-sided sparring contest as Navan O'Mahonys coasted to an easy win over Simonstown Gaels at Pairc Tailteann on Sunday. Defeat wasn't detrimental to Simonstown's title ambitions, but the level of their performance will lead to a lot of questions about their credentials as O'Mahonys cruised into the quarter-finals. Simonstown will probably still make it, but they will need to show significant improvement next week against Donaghmore/Ashbourne. Despite being without so many key players, Kevin Reilly, Stephen Bray and Stephen MacGabhann, O'Mahonys still had far too much endeavour for a Simonstown side that struggled after plan A had failed. That plan of lumping long balls forward to Shane O'Rourke reaped minor dividends, but once O'Mahonys came to grips with the ploy they dealt comfortably with everything Simonstown could throw at them. Seamus Kenny did attempt to be a creative influence from centre-back and Michael Brennan and O'Rourke did cause a few problems in attack, but Simonstown were very limited and rarely looked capable of upsetting O'Mahonys. The champions were very composed and never looked rattled. Simonstown looked to be getting on top for five minutes midway through the first-half when they closed the gap from 0-1 to 0-4 to the minimum, but O'Mahonys were boosted by a fortunate goal and they kicked on from there. Shane McKeigue got the better of Hank Traynor, Henry Finnegan showed glimpses of his best form, Ross Geraghty was a constant menace and with Cormac McGuinness, Paddy Smyth and Barry Regan also in great form O'Mahonys were by far the better side. Simonstown's opening score from a Brennan free masked their underlying problem. They struggled to score from play with Wayne McCarthy absent through injury. It took Colm O'Rourke's side until the fifth minute of the second-half to get their first point from play and by that stage they were already playing catch up. O'Mahonys' first score was a bizarre point. Smyth's fisted point was surprisingly disallowed. From the resultant free-out Gary Lynch gifted the ball to David Bray who punched over to restore parity. Three points in two minutes from McGuinness, Regan and Finnegan made it 0-4 to 0-1 before a brace of frees from Brennan, either side of a decent O'Rourke goal chance that was well saved by Mark Brennan, left Simonstown trailing by a point. Regan saw a great goal opportunity drift wide before a dreadful mistake by Lynch, when he failed to hold Bray's short free, allowed Smyth tap the ball to the net from close range. Bray and Finnegan tagged on points to stretch O'Mahonys lead to 1-6 to 0-3 at the break and within 90 seconds of the re-start another Bray free put seven points between the sides. A second threatened recovery by Simonstown saw points from Brennan (free), O'Rourke and Shane Barry narrow the deficit to 0-6 to 1-7 and when Smyth and Bray traded scores with O'Rourke and Brennan (free) to leave O'Mahonys just 1-9 to 0-8 ahead at the end of the third-quarter Simonstown sensed they had a chance, but they failed to score again. With 15 minutes remaining Shane McKeigue gathered Geraghty's centre and finished to the net before closing points from Finnegan, Bray and Regan sealed victory. Navan O'Mahonys - M Brennan; S O'Toole, N McKeigue, D Moran; G O'Brien, S Crosby, C McGuinness (0-1); B Regan (0-2), M Ward; L Russell, R Geraghty, H Finnegan (0-3); D Bray (0-5, three frees), S McKeigue (1-0), P Smyth (1-1). Subs - J Regan for Russell 41 mins, D Maguire for Geraghty 56m, C Reilly for S McKeigue 57m, D Murtagh for O'Brien 59m, G O'Dowd for Smyth 60m. Simonstown - G Lynch; S McGivney, H Traynor, B Flood; S Carr, S Kenny, S Kieran; P Meade, M McCabe; P McKeever, J Lyons, B O'Donnell; S Tobin, M Brennan (0-5, frees), S O'Rourke (0-2). Subs - M O'Rourke for Flood 12 mins, S Barry (0-1) for O'Donnell half-time, S O'Neill for Tobin 38m. Referee - Cormac Reilly (St Mary's).