O'CONNELLS 3-18
O RAGHALLAIGHS 3-11
Reigning Louth Intermediate champions, O'Connells, made a winning return to the senior grade when they recovered from a slow start to defeat O Raghallaighs at Dunleer on Saturday night.
The O'Connells were in fine form in a strong spell either side of the break as, inspired by a fine attacking display from Paul McKeever, Robert Quigley and Niall Conlon, they ran out comfortable winners.
In an open attacking game, Division 2 league leaders, O Raghallaighs, got off to a bright start as goals from Ben Rogan and Eoin Moore had them leading by 2-1 to 0-2 on eight minutes.
However, the O'Connells got back into contention with a well-worked goal from McKeever while Quigley and Conlon were among the point scorers as the Bellingham side led by 1-10 to 2-4 at half time.
That advantage was doubled inside 30 seconds of the restart when Conlon set up McKeever for a second goal. In the 38 th minute Conlon cut through the defence himself and planted a low shot into the net to put his side 3-11 to 2-5 in front.
The O Raghallaighs never looked like they could claw back that lead and despite Barry Flanagan landing six second half frees, they couldn't get through the tight defence for they goal required to revive their challenge.
Conlon and Quigley kept the scoreboard ticking over at the other end to ensure that Ben Rogan's goal from a penalty on 29 minutes was little more than consolation.
The outcome of the final game in the group between O'Connells and St Josephs will decide which two teams will advance to the quarter-final.
O'CONNELLS: Stuart Reynolds; James Clerkin, Conor Byrne, Jason Carroll 0-1; Jackie Agnew, Salem Rifaie, Conor McGill; Conor Kiernan, Sean Cairns; Dean Stanfield 0-2, Paul McKeever 2-3, Stuart Osborne; Niall Conlon 1-6 (4f), Robert Quigley 0-6 (1f, '45'), Emmet Byrne. Subs: Sean Connolly for D Stanfield, John McLaughlin for S Osborne.
O RAGHALLAIGHS: Joe Flanagan; Len Murphy, Ciaran Brassil, Tomas Callan; Eoin Moore 1-0, Dean Byrne, James Moonan 0-1; Alan Doyle, Robert Mulroy; Daniel Morgan 0-1, Barry Flanagan 0-6 (6f), Olan Walshe 0-1; Chris Smith, Ben Rogan 2-1 (1-0 pen), Ruairi Moore 0-1. Subs: John Matthews for D. Byrne, Jack Carr for R. Mulroy, Sean Grennan for O. Walshe.
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