St Peters 1-7 (1-2) St Lawrence's 1-8 (0-3) St Lawrence's reach the Wolfetone league final with a hard fought victory over a rejuvenated St Peters team in what was an entertaining game in Hough End. The game was played in perfect conditions and in good spirits by both teams with Lawrence's ending up eventual winners by a single point. St Lawrence's started brightest but were unable to take advantage of St Peters lack of match practice, despite dominating the opening 10 minutes. In that period Lawrence's wasted three glorious one on ones with the goalkeeper before St Peters raced down the other end of the field and goaled. Lawrence's responded almost immediately with a point of their own from Byrne, But Peters tails were up and they were now in the ascendancy and piling on the pressure, but the Lawrence's full back line of Costello and Hanahoe were soaking up this pressure and turning defence to attack. Luke Byrne grabbed his second point of the game when he converted a free on the Peters 21. Peters responded almost immediately sending a long ball in which the full back line failed to deal with and the peters full forward split the posts to restore St Peters 3 point advantage. Peters were making Lawrence's work hard for their scores, with both Quinn and Judge missing goal chances before O'Grady reduced St Peters lead to two points with a fine score. Peters were now getting a grip a midfield with Mick Fitz of Lawrence's ineffectual in the middle of the park who was left looking like a lost little boy. Peters responded with another point of their own to leave the half time score 1-2 to 0-3. From the restart both sides looked lively but were struggling to turn possessions in to scores. Until O'Donoghue fired a ball into Luke Byrne who left his man for dead and headed towards goal, with the goal chance on Byrne unselfishly hand passed across the goal for Fermanagh man Pete Quinn to fist the ball to the net, the goal put St Lawrence's in front for the first time in the game. Lawrence's were now leading 1-3 to 1-2. Lawrence's added another point soon after to stretch their lead to two points when Mick Fitz who had moved to full forward landed a point over the bar. Peters replied almost immediately with a point of their own and then added three unanswered points of their own to take a two point lead into the final ten minutes. Lawrence's substitute Liam Murphy added pace to forward line and immediately played a ball into Mick Fitz who scored his second of the game and reduced St Peters lead to one point. Peters replied almost immediately and restored their two point advantage. With only minutes remaining on the clock, it looked like time was running out for Lawrence's. Player manager Jimmy Wray brought himself on and made an immediate impact, he pick up a ball on his own 45, beat his man then played a long ball into Byrne, Byrne hand passed to O'Donoghue who coolly slotted the ball over the bar to reduce Peters lead to a point. The momentum was with St Lawrence's now and it looked like the game was heading for a draw when Luke Byrne brought the sides level with his third point of the game with a minute to go. However St Lawrence's won the resulting kick out and the ball was played into Mick Fitzsimons who fired over with his back to goal to win the game for St Lawrence's and put them into their second final of the season. Best for Lawrence's was Sean Hackett playing his first game in goals, Mick Fitz had a superb second half to make up for his lacklustre display in the first half. Gerry Donaghy had fine game at midfield, with Luke Byrne putting in a 'man of the match' performance. Lawrence's will be pleased to have got over this hurdle and await the winners of close rivals Oisins or St Brendans in the final. It was also good to see St Peters back on track after their earlier difficulties in the season. Team 1. Sean Hackett 2. Pat Hanahoe 3. Darragh Costello 4. Dermot Costello (Capt) 5. Rory O'Donoghue 0-1 6. Paddy Hurley 7. Trevor O'Grady 0-1 8. Mick Fitzsimons 0-3 9. Gerry Donaghy 10. Pete Quinn 1-0 11. Adrian Judge 12. Paul Murphy 13. Luke Byrne 0-3 Subs Liam Murphy for Adrian Judge 40 mins Jimmy Wray for Paul Murphy 53 mins Underage The under 12s were narrowly defeated by Oisins in the u12 league final on Saturday past. In what was an exciting game of football Oisins ran out eventual winners on a score line of 2-9 to 3-3. St Lawrence's will take heart from the fact that 6 of the 9 players who took to the field on Saturday are part of their winning Full Irish u10s team. Dinner Dance St Lawrence's annual dinner dance will be held on Friday the 24th October in the Cresta Court Hotel in Altrincham, tickets are priced at £25. Anyone interested in attending should contact club secretary Finola McSherry on 07793541087 and place their order. Training Training continues at 6.15pm every Thursday at Turn Moss, anyone interested in playing Gaelic football in Manchester should contact Jimmy on 07709434978 or Paul 07947157702. Tweet

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