SFC: Pat's brush O'Connells aside
August 31, 2015
Ray Finnegan St Patricks gets the better of Salem Rifaie (O'Connells)
ST PATRICKS 2-15
O'CONNELLS 0-9
Champions St Patricks eased through to the semi-final of the Senior Championship when they brushed aside the challenge of O'Connells in Dunleer on Sunday night.
The Bellingham side battled well throughout the contest but were always chasing the game after conceding 1-3 in the opening eight minutes. The Pats always looked to have enough in reserve after that and a second goal from Darragh Lafferty with 12 minutes remaining settled the issue.
Overall it was a competent display by the holders who proved once again that they are determined to hold on to the Joe Ward for another year.
The Lordship men started brightly and had three points on the board from Paddy Keenan, Karl White and Patrick Kirk inside four minutes.
Although Robert Quigley replied from a free, White fired home the first goal from a penalty after Danny O'Connor had been fouled, making it 1-3 to 0-1.
The O'Connells fought back with points from Cian Doyle, Quigley and Niall Conlon to make it a two-point game after 19 minutes.
However, the Pats responded to that fight back by scoring through Keenan and the impressive Eoin O'Connor. Stuart Reynolds landed a free at the other end but late scores from Danny O'Connor and White saw their side go in leading by 1-7 to 0-5.
The uphill task facing the Mid Louth side became even more daunting less than two minutes after the restart as Jason Carroll was given his marching orders for a second yellow and White stretched the lead from a free.
With 36 minutes on the clock, Pats lost the numerical advantage when Patrick Kirk also picked up a second yellow. Despite that setback, the Peninsula side maintained the advantage when Danny O'Connor and Ray Finnegan responded to points from Conlon and Quigley to make it 1-10 to 0-7 on 18 minutes.
The extra space was suiting the Pats and they made it count with a sweeping move that cut open the O'Connells defence and ended with Darragh Lafferty fisting the ball home.
Although the men from The Grove kicked the next point through Stuart Reynolds, even they realised that there was no way back from that goal. As a result, the Pats cruised through the closing ten minutes and added scores from Keenan, White (2), Eoin O'Connor and Aidan McCann, before Quigley claimed a consolation score at the other end.
ST PATRICKS: Sean Connor; Patrick Kirk 0-1, Darren O'Hanlon, Kevin Toner; Ray Finnegan 0-1, Dessie Finnegan, Owen Zamboglou; Paddy Keenan 0-3, Eamonn Breen; Aidan McCann 0-1, Karl White 1-5, Eoghan Lafferty; Danny O'Connor 0-2, Eoin O'Connor 0-2, Ross Murphy. Subs: Darragh Lafferty 1-0 for E Murphy, Conor Grogan for E Breen, Sean Cumiskey for D O'Connor.
O'CONNELLS: Sean Connolly; Andrew Shields, Conor Byrne, PJ Tuite; Jason Carroll, Jackie Agnew, Keith Ryan; Sean Cairns, Stuart Reynolds 0-2; Paul McKeever, Niall Conlon 0-2, Salem Rifaie; Conor McGill, Cian Doyle 0-1, Robert Quigley 0-4. Sub: TJ Doyle for C McGill.
