Thursday Night at Páirc Eamoin

Under the lights at home on Thursday evening, we came up just short against a well-organised Dreadnots side in what proved a tight and competitive Round 12 encounter. The final scoreline of 0-18 to 3-12 against us stings, but it was the kind of game where the margins were razor-thin and a couple of moments might have turned things differently.

We started brightly, with Darren Connor opening our account inside the opening minute. The early exchanges were closely contested, and we matched the visitors point for point through the first quarter, with contributions from Thomas McCann, Micheál O'Shaugnessy, and Sean Fearon keeping us in touch. Martin McEneaney's free-kick and a well-taken two-pointer showed we had the firepower to trouble them, and Jack Murphy's accuracy from frees kept us ticking over. At the interval, we were still very much in the contest, having posted 0-11 to their 1-9. Dreadnots had struck for a goal early on, but our response was measured and composed.

The second half, however, saw momentum shift. Dreadnots began to build their advantage, and despite our continued efforts — Aidan McCann, Sean Fearon, and Micheál O'Shaugnessy all registering again — we couldn't quite close the gap. McEneaney's late two-pointer from a free kept us fighting, but Dreadnots' discipline and efficiency eventually told. They landed two further goals in the closing stages that ultimately proved decisive. We never gave up, and there were patches where we played some good football, but we weren't quite clinical enough when it mattered.

That's football at this level — fine margins separate wins from losses. Credit to Dreadnots for a professional performance, but we'll take the lessons from this and come again.

Scorers

St Patrick's GFC: Darren Connor (1), Martin McEneaney (2 × 2-pointers), Thomas McCann (1), Micheál O'Shaugnessy (2 + 1 × 2-pointer), Sean Fearon (2), Eoin O'Connor (1), Jack Murphy (3 + 1 × 2-pointer, frees), Aidan McCann (1)