Perfect start for St Michael's

A journey more in hope rather than expectation ended in joy for St Michael's as they produced an IFC shock with a deserved victory over a disappointing Dunderry side at Kilskyre on Sunday evening. Decimated by emigration and injury St Michael's were expected to be easy meat for a Dunderry side that had beaten them by six points in an earlier A FL Div 2 meeting, but the north Meath men had a hunger that proved ravenous. That steely determination provided a perfect platform for St Michael's to produce a stunning first-half display that saw them build a seven-point interval lead. Dunderry rallied in the second-half with a vastly improved performance, but a combination of squandered chances and excellent defending ensured the Carlanstown/Kilbeg men held on. St Michael's manager Tom Halpin (pictured) acknowledged that it has been a difficult start to the year for his charges, but he was delighted with their performance. "This is an important win for the club because we have lost a lot of players to emigration and we are trying to build a new team. We are struggling in Div 2 of the league against good sides, so to get a win in the championship is crucial and hopefully it will give the players a lift," said Halpin. "Today is the first step on the journey and that is always going to be the biggest step. Hopefully we can build on our confidence from this win and move on from here. "We played the first-half at a fairly fast pace and the pitch suited us, but with the experience Dunderry have we knew they'd come back strong at us in the second-half. "Being able to bring in lads like Darren Fay was a huge presence for them, but we worked really hard to hold them, I'm delighted and really proud of the players," concluded Halpin. It was the outstanding performance of one player who delayed his emigration to play in this tie that ensured St Michael's were victorious. Ciaran Lynch is due to leave for Australia next week, but before he left he showed St Michael's what they will be missing with a brilliant display that yielded five first-half points. Lynch might have to depart nursing a knee injury as he was forced off late in the game, but his impact was one of the reasons Dunderry faltered. Dunderry couldn't match the energy, pace and precision of the St Michael's attack in the opening period as Ronan Cassidy, Kevin Cassidy and John Farrelly ran riot. Phelim O'Reilly and Lynch dominated midfield while the defence was hardly stretched by a slow-burning Dunderry attack that struggled to hit top gear. St Michael's were magnificent to watch in the opening period and they could have been further clear if it hadn't been for some excellent defending from John Kelleher. As it was St Michael's didn't look in any danger early on as Ronan Cassidy exposed the Dunderry rearguard and blasted over a great goal chance to opening the scoring. By the eighth minute that lead was extended to 0-3 to 0-0 with Lynch on target twice, once from a free. Dunderry eventually settled with a point from Ivan McCormack, but it was a rare attack as another brace from Lynch left them 0-1 to 0-4 adrift at the end of the first quarter. Meath minor player Paddy Kennelly, who had a muted game before being substituted at half-time, responded with a point for Dunderry, but then came the killer goal as the Dunderry defence went AWOL. A long low centre from Ben Farrell made its way to Kevin Cassidy and the corner forward made room in behind David McCormack and finished well to make it 1-5 to 0-2. Another free from Lynch and an easy point from Ronan Cassidy, after John Farrell had dispossessed Evan Stephens, stretched St Michael's lead to eight points before David Callaghan pulled one back with the last kick of the half to leave Dunderry trailing by 0-3 to 1-7. The introduction of Aaron Newman and the deployment of Darren Fay in attack gave Dunderry fresh impetus for the second-half. Fay was involved in setting up another of Dunderry's Meath minors Stephen Coogan for a point, but four minutes later St Michael's restored their seven-point cushion with David Lynch finding his range. Newman traded scores with fellow substitute John Barry O'Reilly, who only returned from Australia a week earlier, to make it 0-5 to 1-9, but that was the end of St Michael's scoring as Dunderry took the initiative and played their best football. Coogan added his second point before Fay was denied a goal by a magnificent save from Paul McCormack. A Newman free, a superb score from Damien Clarke and a Coogan free closed the deficit to 0-9 to 1-9, but Dunderry didn't look like getting in for a goal. Kevin Cassidy was denied twice by David Jennings before Coogan tapped over his second free, but try as they might for the winning goal, Dunderry's efforts came up short and it was St Michael's who celebrated. St Michael's - P McCormack; M Stafford, P Rogers, D Reilly; S Brody, James Farrell, R Briody; P O'Reilly, C Lynch (0-5 three frees); R Cassidy (0-2), B Farrell, D Lynch (0-1); R Lynch, J Farrell, K Cassidy (1-0). Subs - J B O'Reilly (0-1) for B Farrell 39 mins, D Regan for Brody 51m, P O'Connell for K Lynch 59m. Dunderry - D Jennings; Darren Callaghan, J Kelleher, D McCormack; D Clark (0-1)e, E Stephens, A Garry; K Dowd, P Kennelly (0-1); S Carty, David Callaghan (0-1), S Harte; I McCormack (0-1), B Doherty, S Coogan (0-4 two frees). Subs - D Fay for McCormack 27 mins, A Newman (0-2 frees) for Kennelly half-time. Referee - Jason Plunkett (Clonard).