NEWTOWN BLUES 0-14

DREADNOTS 0-10

Newtown Blues established themselves as serious Senior Championship contenders as they advanced to the last eight with an impressive victory over the Dreadnots at Drogheda on Friday night.

The Newfoundwell side's poor early season league form seems a distant memory as they followed up on their win over Kilkerley Emmets by securing top spot in Group 2 with victory over one of the favourites for the Joe Ward.

The Blues based their win on a strong opening quarter display that saw them take control of proceedings and although the Dreadnots were in contention throughout, they were unable to bridge that gap.

It might have been different if a late James Califf effort had found the net instead of crashing off the crossbar, but in the end the Blues were deserving four point winners.

Ciaran Downey got the first point of the game and that effort was followed by scores from Ross Nally and Robert Carr before Califf got the Dreadnots off the mark.

However it was only a temporary reprieve as Downey and Nally (2) responded to make it 0-6 to 0-1 on 12 minutes.

The Dreadnots slowly got into the game and with the help of points from Califf (3), Barry Faulkner and Peter Kirwan they had reduced the gap to 0-8 to 0-6 at the interval.

Crucially, the Clogherhead men were unable to maintain that momentum and the Blues regained control with early points from Conor Brannigan and Conor Moore, while two further points from Downey stretched the lead to 0-12 to 0-7 just after the third quarter.

The Dreadnots battled to get back into the game in the closing stages but the Blues always appeared to be in control and with the help of the crossbar to deny Califf they held out for victory.

NEWTOWN BLUES: Dean Martin; Niall Costello, Fergal O'Donoghue, Ronan Levins; Kevin Carr, Cormac Reynolds, Paul Moore; Andy McDonnell, John Kermode; Conor Moore 0-1, Colm Judge, Robert Carr 0-1; Ciaran Downey 0-4, Ross Nally 0-3, Conor Brannigan 0-5. Sub: Hugh McGinn for A McDonnell.

DREADNOTS: Kenneth Shevlin, Brian Gargan, Padraig Rath, Derek Shevlin, Barry Faulkner 0-1, David O'Brien, Dermot Campbell, James Califf 0-7, Cian McEvoy, Pat Lynch 0-1, Darragh Shevlin, Liam Shevlin, Peter Kirwan 0-1, Richard Kirwan, Carl Monaghan. Subs: Pauraic Smith for C Monaghan, Fergal McGuigan for R Kirwan.

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