FL1 round-up: semi-finalist decided

November 10, 2014

Eoin O'Connor St Pats

The final round of fixtures in the Division 1 league saw Kilkerley Emmets and Newtown Blues earn the victories they needed to make the semi-finals of the Cardinal O'Donnell Cup.

Those games will take place on Thursday night and will see St Patricks take on Newtown Blues while Dreadnots face Kilkerley Emmets.

At the other end of the table, Naomh Mairtin were the big winners as they scored a narrow win over Dundalk Gaels to secure their status for next year.

As a result, Cooley Kickhams will have to face the relegation play-off after they went down to a 2-13 to 0-8 defeat at the hands of neighbours St Patricks.

At the end of the first half, Cooley were very much in contention as they turned around level at five points apiece.

However, the Pats blitzed their opponents with five unanswered points before Danny O'Connor struck the first goal of the game to make it 1-11 to 0-6 on 47 minutes. Eoin O'Connor added a second goal soon after to seal the victory and make it 11 wins from 11 for the county champions.

Dreadnots, who were already guaranteed to finish second, confirmed Geraldines relegations with a seven point win on Sunday morning.

The Gers needed to win to have any hope of survival and competed well in the opening stages. However, the Dreadnots scored the only goal of the game through Darragh Shevlin late in the first half to lead by 1-5 to 0-4.

The Haggardstown side rarely looked capable of bridging that gap as the Clogherhead men held out for a comfortable 1-13 to 0-9 win.

Shane Lennon struck a late point to see Kilkerley edge past Mattock Rangers on a 2-9 to 2-8 scoreline and secure third place in the division.

Both teams went into the game with high hopes of making the semi-finals and as a result it was evenly balanced throughout.

Mattock found the net through a Christy Grimes penalty but a goal from Daniel McKeown helped the Emmets to lead by 1-5 to 0-3 at the break.

McKeown added a second after the restart but a Ryan Leneghan three-pointer helped level the game entering the closing stages, before Lennon's point saw Kilkerley come out on top.

Meanwhile, Newtown Blues claimed the remaining semi-final place with a very impressive 4-21 to 1-9 win over the O'Connells.

The game was as good as over by half time as the dominant Blues hit the net through Davy McDonnell, Hugh McGinn, Lorcan McQuillan and Robert Carr to lead by 4-10 to 1-5.

Niall Conlon grabbed the O'Connells goal but the second half was more of a damage limitation exercise.

O Raghallaighs recorded a 3-7 to 0-9 win over an under-strength Sean O'Mahonys but it wasn't enough to make the top four after Kilkerley picked up both points in their fixture.

A goal from Eoghan Moore had O Raghallaighs leading by 1-3 to 0-5 at the break against an O'Mahonys team who had one eye on the Leinster Championship semi-final.

Chris Smith and Gordon Yorke sealed the win with second half goals.

Nh Mairtin completed their escape from the bottom two with a 0-12 to 0-11 win over Dundalk Gaels.

The result meant that the Monasterboice side finished alongside Cooley Kickhams on eight points but despite having an inferior score difference, they avoided the play-off by virtue of their win over the peninsula side on the opening day of the season.

The Mairtins led by 0-7 to 0-5 at the break, and although the Gaels hit back in the second half, the Monasterboice men held out for a huge victory.


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