Horans drive Kilmessan on to victory

A brilliant showing from Horan brothers sealed Kilmessan victory over St Peter's

Kilmessan 1-28

St Peters Dunboyne 0-15

Kilmessan made light work of St Peters Dunboyne on Friday in round 3 of the Meath SHC at Ratoath GAA grounds. An incredible Mark Horan tally of 1-9 from play drove on the one-time powerhouses of Meath hurling to victory. Horan’s brother Darragh and county man Kris Gorman also had solid performances while Dunboyne relied heavily on their county star Sean Quigley.

Many keen Meath hurling fans have Kilmessan labelled as the “best of the rest”. However, this was an impressive performance from the men in white and blue and they are not going to bow down to the ‘big four’ in this championship without a battle.

Despite hitting five wides inside the opening 10 minutes, Kilmessan got off to a flying start. Kris Gorman, Declan Smyth, and the two Horans, Mark and Darragh, all raised the white flag twice inside the opening 10. This gave Kilmessan an early cushion of 0-8 to 0-2. St Peter’s two points came courtesy of two long-range efforts from Sean Quigley.

Darragh Horan asked the Dunboyne defence a lot of questions throughout and he secured two points either side of a score from his brother Luke. St Peter’s were trying not to let the gap widen further, and three more Quigley frees helped the cause.

The county men, Quigley and Gorman, traded scores before Mark and Darragh Horan added two more points to Kilmessan’s tally right before the half-time whistle. At the break, Kilmessan led 0-15 to 0-8.

Kilmessan started the second-half with the same intensity in which they had commenced the first. Two points from Luke and Mark Horan preceded the first and only goal of the clash. A wonderful team move was polished off when Mark Horan found the back of the St Peter’s net to extend Kilmessan’s lead to 12.

Dunboyne, to their credit, responded well to the goal. Over the next five minutes, they outscored Kilmessan by 0-5 to 0-1. Quigley provided four of the scores before Niall Smyth added his name to the score sheet.

While Dunboyne did have a short-lived purple patch, it still felt like Kilmessan were firmly in the driving seat. It wasn’t long until normal service resumed and Kilmessan rattled off seven points on the trot. Four of those scores were secured by the full forward Horan as he brought his tally to 0-8. The other three points were courtesy of substitutes, Adam O’Neil, Kyle Donnelly and Marty Mulhall.

Mark Horan added two more scores before Darragh Horan wrapped up proceedings and a fine day for the Horans and for Kilmessan with his fifth point.

Kilmessan – Stephen Clynch; Harry Cahill, Shane Brennan, Peter Farrell; Noah Conroy, Joey Keena,Cian O’Sullivan; Darren Reilly, Kris Gorman (0-4); Luke Horan (0-2, two frees), Declan Smyth (0-3), Darragh Horan( 0-5); Sean Doyle, Mark Horan (1-10,one free), Eoin Harkin (0-1). Subs – Malcolm Doyle for O’Sullivan 29m, Adam O’Neil (0-1) for Doyle halftime, Kyle Donnelly (0-1) for Reilly 39m, Marty Mulhall (0-1) for L Horan 46m, Kevin Keena for Smyth 52m.

St Peter’s Dunboyne – Liam Davis; Evan McCrudden, Andy McWeeney, Adian Flynn; Alan Watters, Sean McGrath, Ger Murphy; Eoghan McCormack, Diarmuid Delaney (0-1); Conor Murphy, Sean Quigley (0-11, eight frees, one 65’) Daire Rohan; John Mitchell, Cian Smyth (0-1), Niall Smyth (0-1). Subs - Neil Hackett (0-1) for Mitchell halftime, Luke Loftus for Murphy, Niall Watters for McWeeney both 51m, Peter Connelly for McCrudden 54m.