Simonstown 1—7  Trim  1—5. 

The splendid Pairc Tailteann venue on Saturday evening produced a low scoring and very close contest with both teams defending in numbers. The forwards found little room to get even a shot away never mind getting their scoring attempts on target.  While Simonstown were wind assisted in first half playing into O Mahony's end Trim opened the scoring with a pointed free in the second minute. Paudraic McKeever with a free drew the sides level after six minutes. We then had ten minutes play without a score until McKeever pointed a free to put the Navan men 0—2 to 0—1 in front by the sixteenth minute. Ben Hoey with a long range point from play put Sims 0—3 to 0—1 with twenty four minutes on the clock. Trim replied with two points (1f) to level the match at 0—3 to 0—3 as half time approached. McKeever again with a long range free put Simonstown ahead 0—4 to 0—3 just before the teams headed into the dressing room for the break. 

     A one point advantage  facing into the wind for second half didn't bode well for Simonstown. The full back line of Mark Devlin, Stephen Moran( Team Captain) Mark Gardiner and half backs Briain Conlon, Josh Carolan, Aaron Chinchilla were now much more effective and limited Trim to just two(2) points for whole of second half.  Padraig McKeever with two second half minutes gone converted a long free and Briain Conlon forged forward to tap over from play.  Trim replied with two long range wind assisted points from play.  Ben Hoey with a free put Simons 0—7 to 0—5 as the fourth quarter began. 

   A crowded goalmouth scramble resulted in a Trim goal to put them 1—5 to 0—7 up with twenty one minutes gone.  Mark Devlin got a very harsh black card and left Simonstown with 14 men for remainder of game. He questioned referees decision for allowing goal as he felt there were infringements prior to the score. With a strengthing wind and the introduction of experienced players like Sean Tobin, Andy Kearney and youngsters Eoghan Gough, Aaron Farrelly (both making their  Senior championship debuts) Simonstown began to dominate.  A fine passage of interpassing play resulted with Eoghan Gough being brought down when clean through on goal.  The referee awarded a penalty.  Ben Hoey placed a low ground shot to keepers left into the corner of the net to put Simons 1—7 to 1—5 up on twenty four minutes.   Simonstown managed out the rest of the game plus 4 minutes of injury time.

A win is a win and our best start in three years to the Senior Championship. We play Dunboyne in two week's time.  A special word of thanks to all our supporters ( young and mature)for cheering on the team on Saturday.

​***Simons****

Robbie Burlingham,  Mark Devlin,  Stephen Moran, Mark Gardiner,....Briain Conlon (0--1), Josh Carolan, Aaron Chinchilla, ...Shane Barry, Michael Gavin, ...Jimmy Heaney, Padraig McKeever 0—4(4f), Brian McGrath...Luke Caffrey, Sean Conlon, Ben Hoey  1—2(1f, 1pen)...

*Subs​​***

  Aaron Farrelly /L.Caffrey....Sean Tobin /J.Heaney.... Andy Kearney / A.Chinchilla...Eoghan Gough /S.Conlon

***Extended Panel;

Peter Duffy - Tadgh Hanrahan - Shane Kavanagh - Sean O Connell - Cody Chinchilla - Eoghan Foley - Colin Wickham - Robert Smith - Liam Purvis - Ruairi Brady -  David McKeever - David Kavanagh - Darragh Dooner - Jack Melia - Kyle McEvoy.