COOLEY KICKHAMS 0-13
MATTOCK RANGERS 1-8

Cooley Kickhams eased into the Senior Championship quarter-finals when victory over Mattock Rangers at Haggardstown on Saturday night saw them guarantee top spot in Group 4.

Although there were only two points between the teams at the end, it was more comfortable for a Cooley side who always appeared to be in control of this tie.

Aside from a brief spell in the second half when a Brian Corcoran goal helped reduce the gap to three points, the peninsula side were never seriously troubled as they added to their victory over the O'Connells in the opening round.

In a first half where Mattock's cause wasn't helped when Christy Grimes had a penalty saved by Neil Gallagher, it was Cooley who got off to the better start with two Brian White points inside seven minutes.

Grimes got the Collon men off the mark but Brian Donnelly, White and Conor Rafferty struck to put the Kickhams into a 0-5 to 0-1 lead. The final four points of the half were shared as Cooley went in with a 0-7 to 0-3 lead.

Within seven minutes of the restart, the North Louth men had taken a huge step towards victory when Richard Brennan, Sean Donnelly and Rafferty all raised white flags to increase the lead to seven.

However, Mattock rallied and after Niall Sharkey struck a point, Brian Corcoran got through for the only goal of the game on 40 minutes and bring the gap back to 0-10 to 1-4.

Cooley responded to the challenge by stepping up a gear and restored control with two points from White. Grimes and White then exchanged scores to make it 0-13 to 1-5 before late efforts from Adrian Reid and Sharkey proved no more than consolation scores for Mattock.

COOLEY KICKHAMS: Neil Gallagher; Richard Brennan 0-1, Conor McGuinness, David Reilly; Keith White, MJ Hanlon, Darren Marks; Brian Donnelly 0-1, Conor Rafferty 0-4; Aoghain McGuinness, Alan Page, Brian White 0-6; Shane Marks, Sean Donnelly 0-1, Gavin Long. Subs: Gerry Malone for S Marks, Patrick Sheelan for A McGuinness, Michael Kane for B Donnelly, Ronan Hanlon for A Page, PJ McGivern for D Marks.

MATTOCK RANGERS: Mike Englishby; Michael McKeown, Sean Gilsenan, Terry Donegan; Niall Callan, Daire Englishby, Adrian Reid 0-1; Daniel Bannon, Hugh Donnelly; Christy Grimes 0-5, James Carragher, Ryan Lenaghan; Brian Corcoran 1-0, Robbie Brennan, Shane Grimes. Subs: David Brennan for D Bannon, Niall Sharkey 0-2 for R Lenaghan, Alan Carragher for J Carragher. Tweet

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