Setanta flex SHC muscle with dominant St Eunan’s victory at the Cross

Super Setanta sent out a clear warning as they easily dispatched the challenge of St Eunan’s in a SHC tie that finished in semi-darkness at the Cross.

Josh McGee Cronolly and Danny Cullen grabbed the all-important goals but it was a scoring burst after the break, when the home side hit 2-4 in the space of six minutes with McGee and Cullen finding the net, that settled this one. 

The hosts led 1-12 to 0-8 at the break and even though they only hit four more points, the match was well sealed at that stage.

In context, Eunan’s were missing Daire Ó Maoileidigh, Cathal O’Brien and Matt Ahern and relied on the promising Peter Kelly for the bulk of their scores.

Setanta settled swiftly and had early points from Declan Coulter and Dean Harvey. This was cancelled by points from Brendan Gaffey and Cormac Finn.

But Setanta, who were playing with the slight slope, regained the lead through points from the excellent Ruairi Campbell and Sean Ward.

It was then that McGee Cronolly hit a cracking goal to hand the home side the impetus in the 11th minute and points from Harvey and Gerry Gilmore before Sean McVeigh made it 1-5 to 0-4 for Setanta.

Kelly hit a fine score for Eunan’s to leave a goal in it as he and Gilmore swapped points.

Campbell, Harvey and Gilmore then made it 1-12 to 0-8 with David Horgan, Brian MacIntyre and McVeigh pointing for the Letterkenny outfit.

Eunan’s had the first point of the second half from Kevin Kealy. But Setanta responded like a rattler with veteran Cullen smashing a great shot to the Eunan’s net.

Campbell, Cullen and Harvey followed up with quickfire points before McGee Cronolly hit another cracking goal to put Setanta into a pretty unassailable lead of 3-16 to 0-9 by the 37th minute.

The game was effectively over as Setanta ran its bench and Eunan’s tacked on six more points, mostly from the stick of Kelly as the game petered out.

There was one brief flare-up where referee Trevor Maloney booked two from each side in a game that was generally free of rancour.

Eunan’s kept battling but Setanta look like a side that is intent on going for three-in-row.

Setanta scorers: Josh McGee Cronolly 2-1; Gerry Gilmore 0-5,4f; Declan Coulter 0-4; Dean Harvey 0-4; Ruairi Campbell 0-4; Danny Cullen 1-1; Sean Ward 0-1.

St Eunan’s scorers: Peter Kelly 0-6,6f; Kevin Kealy 0-2; Sean McVeigh 0-2; Brian McIntyre 0-1; John Kealy 0-1; Cormac Finn 0-1; David Horgan 0-1,1ff; Brendan Gaffey 0-1.

Setanta: Kevin Campbell; Conor McGettigan, Steven McBride, Ruairi McLaughlin; Ryan Coyle, Bernard Lafferty, Justin McBride; Declan Coulter, Dean Harvey; Niall Cleary, Danny Cullen, Sean Ward; Josh McGee Cronolly, Gerry Gilmore, Ruairi Campbell. 

Subs; Fionna Farren for Niall Ward (46), Conor Gallen for Gerry Gilmore (50), Niall Cleary for Ruairi McLaughlin (56).

St Eunan’s: Dara McBride; Sean Halvey, Conor O’Grady, Conor Neely; Ryan Hilferty, Kevin Kealy, Lorcan Heavey; Brendan Horgan, David Horgan; Peter Kelly, Brian MacIntyre, Sean McVeigh; Brendan Gaffey, Cormac Finn, John Kealy. 

Subs; Johnny Lambe and John MacIntyre for David Horgan and John Kealy (56).

Referee: Trevor Maloney (Buncrana).