Senior Football Friendly Davitts 2-13 Ardoyne 2-9

Davitts preparations for the new season started with a friendly against Ardoyne at Twinbrook. In a competitive encounter both teams displayed some excellent play but you could also see the rustiness of the winter break.Ardoyne started brightly when they netted an excellent goal straight from the throw in but Davitts hit back with a string of points from Stephen Toner (0-3) Fra McCabe and Anthony McGrattan to lead 0-5 to 1-0. A well worked goal by Colly O’Riordan extended the lead before Ardoyne clawed themselves back into contention and close the gap to 1-5 to 1-3. The first half was to end with a a flurry of scores with Sean O’Neill picking of two fine points, while Ryan Rooney netted and Joe Kearney scored a minor. Ardoyne replied with a further three points to leave the half time score Davitts 2-8 Ardoyne 1-6.The Davitts made seven changes at half time and once agin staright from the throw in Ardoyne blasted to the net. The second half scoring was limited as both teams failed to capitalise on their chances. Points from Sean Smith, Darren Munster and three from Anthony McGrattan were enough to see the Davitts home despite three unanswered Ardoyne points.All in all this was a good work out for both teams in their preparations but there is still a lot of work to be done between now and the start of the league campaign.Davitts: D Mackin, E Kyle, D O’Neill, N McCleave, P McGivern, F McCabe (0-1), S McGovern, C O’Riordan (1-0), S O’Neill(0-2), D Munster (0-1), G Shaw, R Rooney (1-0), A McGrattan (0-4), J Kearney (0-1), S Toner (0-3)Subs: G Burns, S Smith (0-1), L McGivern, G Thornton, B Creen, J McDonnell, M Mooney