SKERRIES Harps, under former Down All Ireland winning medallist Conor Deegan, kicked off their league campaign with a narrow onepoint win over Fingallians in Skerries on Sunday morning.

Fingallians finished the second half with 14 men after David Killeen picked up his second yellow for dissent in the final minutes as the game went away from them after the break.

With Dublin junior manager, John Sexton, watching from the sidelines, Skerries dominated the final quarter and Donnacha Reilly's point with five minutes remaining ultimately proved the difference between the two sides.

Both teams were missing key players in Bryan Cullen (Skerries) and Paul Flynn (Fingallians), the two Dublin panellists in action for DCU in Saturday's Sigerson Cup final in Leixlip.

The visitors had dominated the opening stages, with David Killeen finding the back of the net inside the first minute.

And playing into the clubhouse end, the Swords men drove home their advantage with a Killeen free followed soon after by a terrific left footed point from Fingallians captain Donal Farrell.

Skerries finally opened their account midway through the half following a free from their young talent, Harry Dawson.

And they continued their comeback when Graham Cullen broke from just inside the Fingallians half before slotting over a point.

The two sides exchanged a point each, but Skerries then suffered another setback when Farrell dropped a high ball into the square.

Skerries ' keeper Vincent Hughes, as he attempted to save the point, could only palm the ball back into the path of the incoming Eoin Collins who duly fisted the ball home to make it 2-3 to 0-3 with 25 minutes gone.

It remained that way at half time, but Skerries returned to register back-toback scores from Peter Ellis

SKERRIES HARPS: Vincent Hughes; Ciaran Keane, Rory Newsholme, Dara Geraghty; Eoin Ellis, Donnacha Reilly 0-1, Liam Reddin; Colin Daly 0-2, Paul Doherty; Conor O'Brien 0-2, Graham Cullen 0-1, Gerry Daly 1-2 (0-1f); Harry Dawson 0-2 (0-2f), Peter Ellis 0-1, Ronan O'Sullivan 01f. Subs: Kevin Cashman for Doherty, Johnny Garrett for Eoin Ellis, Mark Kirwan for Geraghty.

FINGALLIANS: Rossa Kelleher; Karl McCallion, Donal Clarke, Stephen Fagan; Stephen Barrett, Martin Daly, David Fagan; Gary Donnelly, Eddie Sweeney; Eoin Martin, Donal Farrell 0-4 (2f), Donal Keane 1-0; David Killeen 1-1 (0-1f), Eoin Collins 1-0, David Synnott. Sub used: Darren and Colin Daly.

Skerries then had the ball in the back of the net when Peter Ellis took a short pass before slotting past the keeper.

But with Starlights referee Andrew McAllister spotting an earlier infringement a penalty to Fingallians was awarded instead which Rossa Kelleher saved. And although Ronan O'Sullivan was to add another point for Skerries, the home side were then to concede their third goal when an overlap down the right allowed Donal Keane to fire to the bottom corner with 44 minutes gone in the game to make it 34 to 0-6 to Fingallians.

But with Daly driving on the team from midfield, Skerries hit the ground running for the final quarter, with the impressive Gerry Daly, Conor O'Brien, Dawson and Colin Daly all registering scores before Daly took a pass off Kevin Cashman to level proceedings.

An O'Brien point was then followed by an inspirational score by Reilly, but Fingallians – having been quiet for most of the half – almost snatched a late goal, with a Donal Keane effort put out for a fifty.

And despite a late free from Farrell, Fingallians fell just short to end a very memorable league opener.

- Rory KERR