Louth GAA: Dreadnot's account for St Fechin's in local derby

Dreadnots 0-12 

St Fechins 0-9

In a hard hitting, and physical local derby, it was the Dreadnots who deservedly earned bragging rights, and more importantly a place in the knockout stages of the senior championship, with this victory over St Fechins, their second win in 6 days, after accounting for the Geraldines at the same venue last Monday.

With no prisoners taken in some meaty challenges, where tempers threatened to flare on occasions, it was the old guard of Clogherhead who came to the scoring fore for Wayne McKeever’s side, with James Califf, and Pepe Smith accounting for almost two thirds of the Dreadnots’ scores. Dermot Campbell was a calming influence, while Ciaran Clarke, Cian McEvoy and Anthony Williams also got through plenty of hard graft for their side.

In fact, Campbell and Williams featured in the top possession stats for Clogherhead, with 19 and 20 touches of the size 5 respectively.

With the early breeze making fluent football difficult in the first half, the Dreadnots took advantage of that early wind to take a 0-3 to 0-1 lead after 10 minutes, with a Paraic Smith free, either side of two early points from the lively Peter Kirwan who also saw plenty of the ball over the hour.

Fechins’ keeper Niall McDonnell deserves a key mention, having kicked a wonderful long distance free into a difficult early wind, along with getting involved in the play for the Hoops.

Any early ball kicked into that inside line of Smith and Kirwan, with Califf hovering, caused problems to the Fechins backline, with Jay Hughes on the end of a passing move involving Califf and Smith, before firing narrowly wide. The county panellist was later withdrawn due to a suspected hamstring injury. The man who came on for him, Craig Shevlin proved more than an adequate replacement.

Scores in open play continued to be hard to come by, but a wonderful effort from Ronan Holcroft closed the gap for the Fechins.

Place balls were becoming more and more important, as Ryan Walsh and Califf traded frees, to make it 0-4 to 0-3 in the Dreadnots’ favour after 19 minutes.

A beautifully struck Califf ’45 stretched out that lead for McKeever’s side, before first half sub Craig Shevlin came to the party with two superb points of his own, ably assisted by Smith and Kirwan, to make it 0-7 to 0-3.

After Niall Devlin’s effort into a swirling breeze struck the post, Paul Mathews displayed excellent coordination to swivel and score for the Hoops, to leave Paul Clarke’s side just three in arrears at the break.

Second Half: 

With the wind beginning to die down in the second half, the Fechins’ kicking from distance was noticeable, with Paul Mathews’ second point met with a huge roar from the Fechins supporters, with the tension that a derby can bring palpable.

The Dreadnots to their credit still managed to keep their local rivals at arms-length, with frees from Smith and Califf stretching their lead to 0-10 to 0-6 inside 40 minutes, with Ronan Holcroft responding from the Fechins from long range. 

Alongside Mathews in the middle of the field, Ryan Walsh was not found wanting, with the dual star kicking a terrific effort from distance to keep that gap at three points.

Not long after that came a huge blow for the Fechins, who lost Paul Mathews to a second yellow card in the 45th minute. 

With 54 minutes on the clock, James Califf’s first score from play was met with a vociferous roar from the Clogherhead dugout, as they sensed victory was close.

But credit to the Fechins and especially Ryan Walsh, who continued to carry the fight, with two frees, as the Beaulieu side sprung John O’Connell and Eoghan Duffy from the bench in a bid to save the game

However, the final say went to the Dreadnots, who sealed victory when Califf set up sub Dean Hyland for a clinching score, to ensure their pathway to the knockout stages.

An important victory for Clogherhead, avenging their defeat to St Fechins last year, which sent them to a relegation play off in 2022.

St Fechins will face the Geraldines in a fight for second place in this group. 

Dreadnots: Dylan Cassidy; Aaron Scullion, Barry Faulkner, Ciaran Finnegan; Anthony Williams, Conor Clarke, Conor Faulkner; Cian McEvoy, Dermot Campbell; Owen Murphy, Jay Hughes, Darragh Shevlin; Peter Kirwan (0-2), James Califf (0-4) (2f) (1’45), Paraic Smith (0-3) (3f).

Subs: Craig Shevlin (0-2) for Hughes (19), Dean Hyland (0-1) for Craig Shevlin (58), Ciaran Cunnigham for Darragh Shevlin (58), Cathal Lynch for McEvoy (62). 

St Fechins: Niall McDonnell (0-1) (1f); Mark Holohan, David Lally, Niall McCabe; Shane Reilly, Jamie McDonnell, Harry Haughney; Ryan Walsh (0-4) (3f), Paul Mathews (0-2); Bevan Duffy, Ronan Holcroft (0-2), Sean Kerrisk; Danny Burnell, Colm O’Neill, Niall Devlin. 

Subs: Eoghan Duffy for O’Neill (43), Cian Gorman for McCabe (43), John O’Connell for Kerrisk (49), Joe Corrigan for Burnell (49), Neal Hodgins for Holcroft (54). 

Referee: Paul Kneel