St Lawrences GAA club visit Foxford
St Lawrences GAA club, based near Stretford in Manchester, visited Foxford on the week end of the 5 August. They were accompanied by a large number of enthusiastic and good humoured supporters who livened up Sraith Gharbh for the Friday evening fixture against a Moy Davitts selection.
St Lawrences was founded in 1981 and and is a very successful club. They are Senior champions for the last two year. However, they were short quite a number of their first 15 for this fixture. A measure of their success is the fact that half their squad are second generation Irish. These lads have been brought up through the under age ranks and now compete at the highest level in their club and with a lot of skill and commitment as was clearly evident in Foxford. This combined with expatriates such as the Moy Davitts representatives, Pat Hanahoe, Dermott Costello, Paul Tolan and Darragh Costello (who was born in England but who spent time in Foxford and played for Moy Davitts) make a very fine blend of talent. Click here to check out their website.
The proceedings began with the arrival of St Lawrences and the rekindling of old acquaintances. Moy Davitts although short a number of first team players fielded a strong team for the occasion.
Moy Davitts 1-15 St Lawrences 2-11
A minutes silence was observed as a mark of respect to the Larkin family on the death of Nancy.
St Lawrences opened in great style with an excellent point. They were fast to the ball and showed great skill. However, Moy Davitts settled into the game and began to pick off scores after some exciting combination play. Pat Clarke and Fintan Molloy linked up well together and punished St Lawrences with some excellent scores. At this stage of the game St Lawrences did not seem to be up to the pace of the game, perhaps a legacy of the long journey. Their forwards in particular found life difficult against the Burke brothers, Mervyn Kneafsey, Daniel Igoe, Mark Howley and Oisin Quinn. Kieran Warde's goal seemed to finish the game as a contest. They were 1-11 to 0-4 down at half time having wasted some good possession.
You don't get to win a Senior Championship without a bit of pride and obviously St Lawrences pride was hurt by this scoreline and they quickly set about putting matters right from the start of the second half. Their midfield combination of Trevor O Grady and Gerry Donaghy began to exert a lot of pressure and the forwards at last responded with some well taken scores. Kieran Cunningham was moved to full back where he curtailed the influence Fintan Molloy was having. Two goals by Ryan Magee and Shane Goldrick set the contest alight and St Lawrences were chasing victory as time ran out. It was a marvellous come back, out scoring Moy Davitts by 2-7 to 0-4 in the second half.
Moy Davitts: Ken Durkin, Oisin Quinn, Mervyn Kneafsey, Mark Howley, Brendan Bourke, Daniel Igoe, Darren Howley, Brian Hughes, Cian Gilmore Pat Clarke James Mulderrig, Damien Bourke, Fintan Molloy, Damien Hanahoe, Enda Gilmore, Kieran Warde, Donal Hennigan, Sean Jordan
St Lawrences: Paul Tolan, Noel Caulfield, Mick Fitzsimons (0-1), Darragh Costello, Dermott Costello (0-1), Tom Fox, Kieran Cunningham (0-1), Trevor O Grady, Gerry Donaghy, Sean Hackett (0-2), Larry Madden, Shane Goldrick (1-1), Paul Murphy, Brendan O Hara (0-1), Pat Hanahoe (0-2). Subs: Michael Lavin, Ryan Magee (1-0), Paul Henderson (0-1).
Presentations
After the game both sets of players and supporters enjoyed a little refreshment in the club house. O' Hara's Bakery Foxford, kindly supplied the bread and cakes while a hard working ladies committee put it all together. A special word of thanks to both O' Haras and the ladies.
Fr Padraic Costello welcomed the visitors and informed them that as student he had played football in Manchester for their arch rivals Oisin's. He expressed the wish that they would enjoy their week end in Foxford. John McNicholas, club chairman addressed the assembled group and thanked everyone involved for making the trip possible. He presented a plaque to Paul Tolan to mark the occasion.
Paul thanked John and complimented the club on their developments over the years. He recalled that when he started playing everyone togged out under a blackthorn hedge along the road. He extended an invitation to Moy Davitts to make a trip to Manchester for a return match. John McNicholas was delighted to take up the offer.
At this stage Josie Cunningham presented John McNicholas with a beautiful plaque to mark the visit of St Lawrences to Moy Davitts.
