Ardee Community School breeze to glory in Lennon Cup final

Lennon Cup Final 2023

Ardee Community School 3-12 St Mary’s Diocesan School 2-8

Ardee Community School were crowned Lennon Cup champions last Tuesday night with an emphatic seven-point victory over St Mary’s Diocesan School under the glaring DKIT floodlights.

The success caps a fine year for the Ardee school, dusting off the heartache of an All-Ireland semi-final loss a mere three days previous, making the win even more impressive.

The Community school forcefully got back in the saddle, and they took it out on the Drogheda men in the opening quarter. Three goals inside the opening 17 minutes ensured the game was won and a matter of controlling the outcome from that point onwards.

Sadly, the showpiece caught everyone by surprise. Fixed initially back on the 20th of January, a log jam of Leinster competitions in between meant the showpiece of Louth schools football was rammed in and played off.

Something will have to be done in the coming years. With huge effort being put into the schools level of the sport, the players and staff, along with their parents, deserve more.

So it came to pass on the night that Ardee came off the bus five minutes before throw in to lull and keep Mary's thinking deep into the warm up. Whether the ploy worked or not, is to be disputed.

Ardee’s high level of competition in both North and Leinster competitions may have been the difference in their seismic start anyway, but there was no doubt a motivation in their efforts to make the opposition pay for making them play.

Davin Starkey got right into it with two fine finishes on the back of sterling work from Jamie O’Callaghan for his first and Lorcan Buckley for his second after only 10 minutes had been played.

Ryan McBrearty tried to stem the flow, but Conor McGinty was black carded, which compounded Don Thornton and Jeff Brannigan’s woes on the Drogheda sideline.

Tadgh McDonnell, in a more advanced position, was a force in the first half, scoring 1-2, but that opening period belonged to Adam Gillespie. The Ardee 40-yards man was electric and would not be on the losing end, such was his command of Ardee’s attacking play.

Trailing 3-6 to 0-5 at the break, Mary’s knuckled down and dug deep to provide the scoreline with some gloss. Replacements Jake Hough and Dylan Collins quickly found the back of the net and set up what you would expect to be a nervy final ten minutes.

However, the eventual champions were too composed to be caught, out landing their opponents by four points to one in the finale. Sean Flynn, Gillespie, Jamie O’Callaghan and Sean Callaghan got in on the act to regain the Lennon Cup and thusly crown themselves the best school in Louth.

ARDEE CS: Tiernan Markey (Ardee St Mary’s); Noah Coyle (Ardee St Mary’s), Cillian Taaffe (Hunterstown Rovers), Adam O’Reilly (Hunterstown Rovers); James Russell (Hunterstown Rovers), Mícheál Reid (Hunterstown Rovers), Jamie O’Callaghan (Hunterstown Rovers) [0-1]; Sean Callaghan (Ardee St Mary’s) [0-1], Lorcan Buckley (Ardee St Mary’s); Eoin Dillon (Syddan) [0-1], Adam Gillespie (Ardee St Mary’s) [0-5], Sean Flynn (Mattock Rangers) [0-2]; Alan Reynolds (Stabannon Parnells), Davin Starkey (Ardee St Mary’s) [2-0], Tadgh McDonnell (Ardee St Mary’s) [1-2]. SUBS: Andrew Wogan (Stabannon Parnells) for Reynolds, James Kierans (Ardee St Mary’s) for Russell, Tadgh Kellett (Glyde Rangers) for Dillon, Robert Holmes (Mattock Rangers) for McDonnell, Patrick Balfe (Hunterstown Rovers) for Starkey.

ST MARY’S DS: Oisín Black (St Patrick’s Stamullen); Tom Bowden (Duleek /Bellewstown), Oisín Brennan (St Colmcille’s), Cathal Monaghan (St Colmcille’s); Conor McGinty (O’Raghallaigh’s), Eoin GIllick (St Colmcille’s), Conor Murphy; Seán Emmanuel (St Patrick’s Stamullen), Eamonn Armstrong (Duleek / Bellewstown); Luke Carley (Oliver Plunketts), John Mannion (St Patrick’s Stamullen), Charlie Bacon [0-2] (St Colmcille’s); Darragh Dorian (Naomh Mairtin) [0-2, 0-1 free], Conor Clifford (St Colmcille’s), Ryan McBrearty (St Colmcille’s) [0-3]. SUBS: Maithiu Brien (St Mary’s Donore) for Mannion, Jake Hough (St. Colmcille’s) [1-0], Dylan Collins (Duleek / Bellewstown) [1-1] for Carley, AJ Bradshaw (St. Mary’s Donore), McGinty for Dorian. 

REF: Thomas Carr (Newtown Blues)