There were two meetings of newly promoted teams in 2.3 on opening evening. Cow Tipping Dwarves played host to FC Brylle, while E.K.A. travelled to the Symphonia Superbowl.

FC Brylle had the better of the Dwarfs, netting early, on 5 minutes, with Adam Allen heading home a Ross Byrne corner. Bad start for the Dwarfs. This seems to have pumped a bit too much adrenalin into the Brylle boys as they managed to get three players booked over the next five minutes. There was then some Dwarfish pressure, but three shots in four minutes all went well wide. So it was against the run of play when Ross O’Grady was fouled in the Dwarf box and slotted home the resulting penalty. So Dwarfs were up three shots to two, but two down on the scoreboard. O’Grady managed another before half time, a long distant drive.3-0 at half time and Jonathan Collins in the Brylle goal had only kick-outs to keep him warm.

Brylle kept piling on the pressure in the second half, and Dwarf keeper Jason Finnegan was kept very busy with a series of quality saves. There were two late injuries, first Brylle keeper took a blow to the thigh and was replaced by McCaffery. A minute later Gavin Maguire twisted his ankle and was replaced by Niall Fitzpatrick. Both players were still getting use to the tempo of the game when Brylle got their fourth – O’Grady’s hat-trick. 4-0 to Brylle in the end, and they top the table after day one. The only action the Brylle keeper saw was being stretchered off.

Symphonia got off to the worst possible start when Killian Clery was sent off in the second minute. His victim, Alan Cahill, was beyond the back four and bearing down on goal. It was a no-brainer for the ref. There wasn’t much action for the next half hour, though both ‘keepers had to earn their bread making a save apiece. Cahill had another chance on the half-hour, running onto a long-ball he slotted home, via the ‘keeper, to make it 1-0. It stayed that way to half-time, and beyond. There wasn’t much action , a couple of off-target shots, before Shane O’Regan struck home another long ball to make it 2-0 to A.E.K. with 64 minutes gone. And that’s how it ended, with just one moment of danger when Cahill had another shot saved.

Of the other two promoted teams, one lost and one won. Benjamin Franklin FC bet last seasons 4^th place team, Con, 2-1. It started badly (trend here) for Con who had Thomas Smith injured on four minutes, replaced by the youngster Luke McCoy. Con took the lead, Sean Donnellan heading over the keeper. A few minutes later Roy Reidy was injure for Ben Franklin, and was replaced by Oisin Collins.  There were a couple more injuries (including Con scorer Donnellan) before Franklin equalised on 40 minutes via Fred Sandifort. The second half saw both teams have chances before Franklin got their second – a William Blair volley from the edge of the area. 2-1 at the end.

Donomore Athletic went down 2-0 to last season’s runners-up Athlone Town, with two goals from Jeff Plunkett. Elsewhere relegated LOI team Carnew Rovers got their campaign off to a 2-0 win over Leixlip Utd. A couple of goals (from Weening and Harvey) and a couple of injuries were the highlight of this game. With some better finishing Leixlip could have drawn the game and will feel this is three points dropped despite the calibre of the opposition.

In another game that was closer than the score line suggests, Real Software lost 0-2 to Kill Celtic. Goals from Cian Horan and David Johnston were the difference, but with some better finishing or keeping by Real it could have been different.

Sweet Feet FC visited Real Sociedad and came away with a 2-1 win. The scorers were Mishaal Jamjoum for Real and Ledley Byrne and Mark Duignan for Sweet Feet. Meanwhile Virginia Celtic beat AC Dublin City by the only goal of their game, a strong Kevin McCabe strike. In the only draw of the evening Romero FC and royal meath shared four goals between them.