A THIRD consecutive bonuspoint victory saw Skerries complete their Leinster League season on a high at Holmpatrick last Saturday. Ben Gissing's men had a poor start to the campaign, but they've clicked into top gear in recent weeks and amassed 125 points in their three concluding games while conceding only 37.

In the end they missed out on a top-four finish by the narrowest of margins, having been in relegation trouble only a month ago. With 20 minutes remaining and Skerries leading Monkstown 22-10, with three tries scored, they were in need of some inspiration to break the log-jam that the second half had become.

Skerries wanted the fourth try to ensure a bonus-point win, but with the hunger of the first half temporarily receding, it took a 40-metre break and a side-step worthy of Shane Williams from Skerries prop Packie O'Connor to wrap this game up.

O'Connor's intervention ended with a try under the posts – what a way for the 39year-old to crown his 135th game for Skerries.

It is a great tribute to the veterean that he has lost none of his hunger for the game over his long career at Holmpatrick and elsewhere, and indeed is already looking forward to next season's campaign.

Skerries started this game with a confident air about them, and even though Monkstown took an early lead with a penalty, it was left winger Eddie O'Mahony who scored the first try after seven minutes to make the score 5-3.

Skerries looked to run the ball as much as they could at the Monkstown defence, who at times resembled a rabbit caught in the headlights, such was the intent of the Skerries backs.

On 17 minutes, after a brilliant take in the air from captain Derek Keane, right wing Paul Devitt took the pass to score Skerries' second try. Mitch McGahan converted – 12-3 to Skerries. Out half McGahan increased the lead with a penalty on 24 minutes, and even though Monkstown had a share of possession for the next 10 minutes they did not present a threat to the Skerries line.

After absorbing the Monkstown pressure, Skerries scored again through O'Mahony. A long clearing penalty from full back David Quirke was marginally short of the touchline, but in his effort to keep the ball alive, the Monkstown winger only managed to bat the ball down to the ever eager O'Mahony, who raced in under the posts. McGahan's conversion brought the score to 22-3.

Skerries started the second half in much the same spirit as the first, but were beginning to become a little overeager in their search for the bonus-point try, and as the half wore on, mistakes began to creep into their finishing.

To Monkstown's credit, they did manage to steal a try under the Skerries posts after an hour through their scrumhalf Morris, and centre Kilbride converted – 22-10.

Almost from the re-start came O'Connor's moment of glory. Following a ruck in the centre the Skerries number 1 pounced on a loose ball and seeing the gap, raced through, neatly side-stepped the covering full back and finished with a flourish. McGahan converted to bring the score to 29-10. Now that the pressure was off, Skerries cut loose, and for the second week in a row, winger Paul Devitt scored a length-of-the-pitch intercept try. Monkstown looked to have a huge overlap on the Skerries line, but great anticipation from Devitt saw him cut out the pass and his speed did the rest. Monkstown kept on trying and were rewarded with another try from their replacement prop Dunne to make it 36-15, but Devitt completed a personal hattrick of tries just on full-time as he followed up a good break from Quirke to score in the corner.

This was a very satisfying end to a league campaign that proved to as tough as expected, and the experience gathered this year will be of huge benefit to this team for next season's efforts to regain a place in the AIL.

SKERRIES: David Quirke; Paul Devitt, Mark Hewitt, Derek Keane, Eddie O'Mahony; Mitch McGahan, Eoghan Dempsey; Packie O'Connor, Mark Nally, Michael Campbell; Colm O'Shea, Ben Gissing; Ross McAuley, Ronan Connolly, James Sherlock. Replacements: Derek Dornan, Fiach O'Shea, Mick O'Keeffe, Philip Matthews, Scott Robins. -It was a bad weekend for Fingal's other Leinster League clubs. Ashbourne will need to beat Clondalkin in their next outing to secure a promotion play-off place, after losing 28-5 to leaders Portarlington in Division 2, while in 3A Malahide went down 24-23 at Wexford Wanderers and bottom club Swords were humbled 38-0 by Rathdrum.