Goals fire Summerhill back to top of SFC group
Two goals from the Dalton brothers in the closing minutes of the opening half and another brace in the final five minutes of the game proved to be decisive as Summerhill edged towards the SFC knockout stages with a 4-9 to 0-10 victory over injury and absentee ravaged Navan O'Mahonys at Pairc Tailteann tonight.
Depleted to such an extent that they had to play ace attacker Jake Regan as goalkeeper and without the services of several other key players O'Mahonys were a pale shadow of their former selves as Summerhill punished them.
Summerhill were not without their selection issues too with the Ryan twins Ross and Ronan on holidays and exciting young attacker Conor Frayne and stalwart defender Caolon Young out injured
Summerhill started brightly and dominated the early possession with Liam Shaw pointing them into the lead in the third minute, but they then became very wasteful and gave O'Mahonys a window to stay in the game as Darragh Maguire sold Micheal Byrne a dummy before firing over a leveller.
It took Summerhill a while to press home their supremacy as the returning Sean Dalton edged them ahead in the ninth minute and they didn't trail again, although it did take that first two goal salvo before they pressed home their wind advantage.
Barry Dardis blasted a goal chance over the bar to make it 0-3 to 0-1 before Diarmuid McCabe, son of former manager and Meath selector Declan, marked his debut with a fine score in the 15th minute.
O'Mahonys response was a Shane Gillespie free that was moved to in front of the posts because of dissent, but it continued to be all Summerhill as Sean Dalton made it 0-5 to 0-2.
McCabe squandered a chance to have his name in lights when he fired a goal chance at stand-in goalkeeper Jake Regan, but then came that double goal burst two minutes before the break that effectively settled the issue.
Firstly Shaw won possession brilliantly before finding Padraig Geraghty who picked out Sean Dalton with an equally impressive pass and the younger of the Dalton brothers rifled to the net.
Just over 90 seconds later big brother Davy Dalton did the same when Geraghty once again released him to fire to the net from close range.
Paul Whelehan did pull a point back from a free with the last kick off the half to close the deficit to 0-3 to 2-5, but O'Mahonys were facing a mountain to climb for the second period.
The Navan men did make a decent effort of clawing back that deficit and outscored Summerhill by 0-7 to 0-4 until the concession of two more late goals boosted Summerhill to their comfortable victory.
Gillespie closed the gap within a minute of the restart, but two points from Dardis (one free) made it 2-7 to 0-4.
Dylan Regan and Gillespie narrowed the deficit further and even though Dardis responded with a point it was O'Mahonys who looked the more urgent side with Cathal Smyth forcing Willie Ryan into an amazing goalline deflection over the bar before Gillespie added two more points to make it 0-9 to 2-8.
However everytime O'Mahonys looked threatening Summerhill had an answer for them. Sean Dalton kicked another brilliant score to bring his personal tally to 1-3, but after Dylan Regan converted another free Summerhill replied with a wonderous goal from David Larkin and a palmed finish by Davy Dalton.
O'Mahonys were brave and battled to the end, but the goal never came as Shaw denied Dylan Regan with a last minute block and Summerhill strolled back to the top of the table.
Summerhill – Tony McDonnell; Iarla Hughes, Willie Ryan, John Lavelle; Padraig Geraghty, Micheal Byrne, Kevin Ryan; David Larkin (1-0), Liam Shaw (0-1); Barry Dardis (0-4 one free), Davy Dalton (2-0), Sean Dalton (1-3); Stephen Husband, John Keane, Diarmuid McCabe (0-1). Sub – Cian Devlin for K Ryan 33 mins.
Navan O'Mahonys – Jake Regan; James O'Malley, Niall McKeigue, Evan Power; Shane Crosby, Gary O'Brien, James O'Reilly; Conor Finnegan, Evan Coffey; Darragh Maguire (0-1), Rory Maguire, Paul Whelehan (0-1 free); Shane Gillespie (0-5 four frees), Cormac McGuinness, Dylan Regan (0-2 one free). Subs – Cathal Smyth (0-1) for R Maguire 33 mins, Duggie Dillon for Whelehan 44m, Ross Geraghty for Power 52m, John Rogers for D Maguire 54m, Aodhan Mallon for McGuinness 56m, Heney Finnegan for D Regan 59m.
Referee – Cormac Reilly (St Mary's).