Moninne victory on historic day
Naomh Moninne 0-16 Knockbridge 0-10
The crowds turned up in great numbers to Oldbridge, Toberona on Sunday afternoon to join in the celebrations as Naomh Moninne played their first adult competitive match at their new grounds.
Those in attendance included many players past and present, local councillors, County Board representatives, parents, juveniles, good honest GAA people and friends of the club. They also included people known in the club as 'Field Hero's' who over the last ten years have generously contributed to the pitch funds each month and without whom the Dundalk club would not have the great facilities they have today.
The opposition on the day were Knockbridge in the Colm Geary League and on the day it was the home team who produced a strong last quarter to run out winners by five points. The distinction of scoring the first adult competitive point at the grounds fell to Ciaran Deane who opened the scoring for the visitors.
Top scorer Mark Gahan replied with a point for the black and amber outfit before they went in front through Cathal Azzopardi.
Knockbridge then enjoyed a good period of possession which yielded four unanswered points from Shane Fennell (2), David Kettle and Ronan Byrne.
Another brace of Gahan points reduced the deficit to one before Kettle fired over his second of the half.
Moninne saw out the closing minutes of the half grabbing successive points from Eoin Murphy, James Murphy and Gahan to lead by 0-7 to 0-6 at the break.
The sides shared the opening four on the resumption with the Moninne points scored by Azzopardi and Brendan Prendergast.
Fennell and Ronan Byrne responded with points in between which Mark Gahan scored another point from play to leave the sides tied a ten points a piece.
Moninne finished the game on top scoring five unanswered from the sticks of substitute Robbie Mathews and Gahan who took his impressive tally to nine as the home side ran out deserving winners on their special day. Other players deserving mention on the winning Moninne team were Noel Callan, Darren O'Hanrahan, Conor Caraher David Yore and Sean Magill.
NAOMH MONINNE: James Connolly; Darren O Hanrahan, Noel Callan, Chris Lennon; Paul Challoner, Brendan Prendergast (0-1), Conor Caraher; James Murphy (0-1), David Yore; Mark Gahan (0-9), James Byrne, Sean Magill; Stephen Ryan, Eoin Murphy (0-1), Cathal Azzopardi (0-2). Subs used: Robbie Mathews for S Ryan, Aaron Heaney for C Azzopardi, Ultan McEnaney for J Byrne, Martin Tkacz for E Murphy, Matthew Dignan Moloney for P Challoner.
KNOCKBRIDGE: Conor Kerrigan; Brendan O Donoghue, Andrew McCrave, Ciaran Brennan; James Searson, Mark Wallace, Michael Keane; Shane Fennell (0-4), Gareth Hall; Brian Coughlan, David Kettle (0-3), Ciaran Deane (0-1); Tony Brennan, Ronan Byrne (0-2), Rory McConnell. Subs used: Ciaran King, Kevin Hearty, Eric Enger.