MOYFERNAGH… 0-09

LOUGHCREW GAELS… 0-08

Danny Dixon’s pointed free in the third minute of stoppage time guaranteed Moyfernagh a deserved opening round victory in this Brady’s Skoda Regional Football Championship encounter at Dunganny tonight (Wednesday).

The Boardsmill clubman featured on the senior panel previously during Andy McEntee’s tenure and, while he has seemingly been travelling for a period since but was back in top form this season as the blue and white made it to the knockout stages of their championship.

He was very much to the fore throughout as Tommy Hanley’s team held sway for the majority of the contest once he’d equalised in the early minutes after CJ Healy had opened the scoring.

With Dixon (again), Brendan McKeon, Daragh Swaine and Sean Coloe all finding the range, the lads from midland Meath opened up a buffer of 0-05 to 0-01 before Oldcastle’s Pierce Sheridan slowly but surely hauled his side back into the contest.

To the extent that, by half time, the sides had reached parity at 0-05 apiece. Indeed, it appeared as if they were about to kick on when Sheridan stepped up to take a penalty with 15 minutes still to go.

But his spot kick was stopped by Billy Hogan as Swaine, Dixon and Jack Doherty kept Moyfernagh nicely clear of the Gaels, but, knowing some of those in the latter’s makeup, it was no surprise to see them rally with scores from Seanie Geraghty, Sean Reilly and Joe Blake to leave the sides deadlocked entering stoppage time.

However, on the night, it was probably fitting that it was Dixon who had the final say on the night when he tapped over deep into added on time.