St Marys 1-13 Naomh Mairtin 0-8

A blistering opening ten minutes set St Marys up for a comfortable victory in Group 1 of the Senior Championship in Dunleer on Sunday evening.

This was expected to be a closely fought affair but the Monasterboice men struggled from the outset and were unable to get into any real rhythm over the hour.

The Ardee men had no such difficulty in settling into the game and they had registered their first score inside two minutes through Darren Clarke, before Ronan Carroll doubled the advantage.

Fergal Diamond then took centre stage with three successive points before Karl Faulkner hit the target to make it 0-6 to no score with less than ten minutes on the clock.

The Mairtins managed to slow the rate of scoring but were unable to get themselves on the scoresheet having missed a number of chances. Ronan Carroll showed them the way at the other end with his second of the game, before Nicky McDonnell finally got his side off the mark on 25 minutes.

However, it wasn't to be the start of a comeback as the Marys finished the half on top with scores from Carroll and Alan Kirk to lead by 0-9 to 0-1 at half time.

The Mairtins opened the scoring in the second half through JP Rooney but the Marys were quick to reply through Darren Clarke and JP Rooney to extend the gap to nine points.

The Monasterboice side briefly raised hopes of a comeback when they fired over three unanswered points from Rooney (2) and Brian Berrill to cut the gap to 0-11 to 0-5.

However, they couldn't build on that momentum and the Ardee men stopped that run with scores from Carroll and RJ Callaghan, before Rooney struck again on the 20th minute.

Rooney added two further points close the gap to 0-13 to 0-8 but his side were unable to threaten the goal they needed to have any hope of taking something from the game.

A goal did arrive but it was at the other end as Ryan Rooney pounced to punch the ball to the net after being set up by Carroll and settle the game in Ardee's favour.

ST MARYS: Peter Duffy; David Carroll, John Bingham, Barry Faulkner; Niall Carroll, Evan Keenan, Conor Keenan; Robert Leavy, RJ Callaghan 0-1; Karl Faulkner 0-1, Alan Kirk 0-2, Fergal Diamond 0-3; Ryan Rooney 1-0, Darren Clarke 0-2, Ronan Carroll 0-4. Sub: Cian Moran for F Diamond.

NH MAIRTIN: Martin Byrne; Padraig McDonagh, Mick Fanning, Eamon McQuillan; Thomas Sullivan, Benny Reilly, Brian Howell; Gavin Mooney, David Delaney; John Clutterbuck, Brian Berrill 0-1, Nicky McDonnell 0-1; Stephen Campbell, Conor Whelan, JP Rooney 0-6. Subs: Patrick Sullivan for M Fanning, Sam Mulroy for J Clutterbuck, Eoin Wright for E McQuillian,  Barry Sullivan for B Berrill.

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