St. Patrick’s held by Éire Óg Greystones in Senior championship opener

Éire Óg Greystones 0-10

Defending champions St Patrick’s did not have the most convincing of starts to the defence of their Senior football title at Echelon Park Aughrim on Sunday, having been held to a draw by Éire Óg Greystones.

Linked with a poor showing in the league, resulting in demotion from Division 1, the Saints will need to step up their performances from this display if they are to hold on to Miley.

Paudge McWalter has finally retired after a distinguished football career. He is a huge loss to Pats. He was the engine room in the attack; the playmaker and creator of opportunities for colleagues to sparkle.

Against Éire Óg, Tommy Kelly formed a virtual one-man strike force for the champions and, as so often in the past, he did the majority of the scoring, putting his name to eight of their ten points.

But it was winger Mark O’Brien who got the show on the road for the Dunbur Park men, getting on the end of a sweeping passing move to post their opening point after three minutes.

Dean Healy was a driving force in midfield with support from Ronan Murray and full-back Matthew Traynor was repeatedly surging forward to assist.

But they were finding it difficult to breakdown their opponents as Éire Óg deployed up to 13 players to their blanket defence when St Patrick’s went on the attack.

Tommy Kelly opened his account in in the sixth minute, but he was not to raise a white flag again for another seven minutes, converting a free brought forward for dissent.

Normally very accurate, corner-forward Jordan Pettigrew miscued with his attempt for a point.

Meanwhile Éire Óg had conceded three turnovers to the St Patrick’s defence.

Wing-back Dave Rooney got them up and running on 11 minutes with a point and corner-forward Joe Prendergast levelled things at 0-2 each a minute later.

Tommy Kelly’s point for dissent edged the defending champions back into the lead at the end of the first quarter. Full-back Matthew Traynor bounded forward in attack, and this resulted in another Tommy Kelly point.

At times Stephen Kelly was similarly surging into attack for Éire Óg but goalie Billy Norman was not always finding his men with his kick-outs, the ball flying over the sideline on two occasions.

Tommy Kelly was to put his name to all bar one of St Patrick’s six points in the first half, two of them from frees.

In the closing minutes of the half, Darren Hayden started making his presence felt for Éire Óg with two answering points, both from placed balls, St Patrick’s clinging to a 0-6 to 0-5 lead at the break.

Over playing the ball, Dean Healy missed the target, but Kelly’s trusted boot converted once again on 35 minutes. Wing-back Fintan O’Shea countered for the Greystones men in the next minute, setting the tone for the remainder of the match.

Thanks to the targeted shooting of Tommy Kelly, the Dunbur Park men were keeping their noses in front, yet one had the feeling that this game was going to end in a draw.

Jordan Pettigrew must have left his shooting boots at home as he registered another wide for St. Pat’s and, for once, Tommy Kelly put a free wide of the target, the opposing wind probably a factor there.

But corner-forward Joe Prendergast was on song big time for Éire Óg when the need was most. Prendergast attempted a goal, but the shot came back off the post.

But crucially Prendergast fired over three vital points for the Chris Traynor’s side, including the equaliser on 59 minutes. Teams spancelled at the final whistle, 0-10 apiece.

Encouraging performance by Éire Óg Greystones but ‘need to do more’ would be written on the champions’ exam report.

St. Patrick’s: Shane Doyle; Aidan Dunne, Matthew Traynor, Wayne Doyle; Ciarán McGettigan (0-1), Simon Bouchier, Cian O’Brien; Dean Healy, Ronan Murray; Mark O’Brien (0-1), Bryan Doyle, Alex Sinnott; Jordan Pettigrew, Conor O’Brien, Tommy Kelly (0-8, 3f). Subs: Paul Marah for M O’Brien (54), Ken O’Grady for W Doyle (57).

Éire Óg Greystones: Billy Norman; Conall Deeney, Stephen ‘Chester’ Kelly, Luke Prendergast; Fintan O’Shea (0-1), Fionn O’Carroll, Dave Rooney (0-2); Cillian Keane (0-1), Darragh Shiel; Darren Hayden (0-2), Dan Keane, Gavin O’Shea; Peter Keane, Shaun Cranley, Joe Prendergast (0-4). Subs: Paraic O’Keeffe for C Deeney (49), Dan Clark for C Keane (49).

Referee: Ciarán Fleming (Baltinglass)