GLEN EMMETS 0-10
ST NICHOLAS 0-7
Glen Emmets were made to fight all the way by St Nicholas before booking their place in the last four of the Junior Championship.
The Tullyallen men went into Sunday evening's game in Drogheda as hot favourites but it didn't turn out to be as comfortable as many had predicted. In the end the Emmets had to over-turn a three-point interval deficit before eventually coming out on top to secure a meeting with Roche Emmets in the semi-final.
The Nicks set down a marker inside the opening two minutes, and although Ronan Grufferty levelled after ten, the Drogheda men continued to dominate. With Brian Kerns and Paddy Murtagh among the scorers, they kicked three in succession to lead by 0-4 to 0-1 after 21 minutes.
David Bracken responded for the Emmets but goalkeeper, Alan Sweeney, had the final say of the half as he landed a '45' to send his team in leading by 0-5 to 0-2 despite having Declan Heeney sent off on 20 minutes.
The Emmets came out for the second half with all guns blazing and levelled inside six minutes through Keith Lynch, Eamonn Mullen and Conor Grimes. Furhter efforts from Grufferty, Mark Garvey and James Butler had them 0-8 to 0-5 to the good after 47 minutes.
The Nicks challenge was beginning to fade at that stage but they pulled a point back soon after. That was cancelled out by a David Bracken effort but with ten minutes remaining the gap was back to two points.
However, in the end the Emmets had that little bit extra and the final point of the game from Grufferty saw them hold out for victory.
GLEN EMMETS: Fergus Barnett; Tom Grimes, Andrew Mooney, Niall Hackett; Keith Boylan, Aidan Monahan, Ronan Carr; Robbie Byrne, Sean Byrne; Ronan Grufferty 0-3, David Bracken 0-2, Keith Lynch 0-2; Mark Noone, James Butler 0-1, Mark Garvey 0-1. Subs: Eamonn Mullen 0-1 for M Noone, Jamie Farnan for K Boylan, Conor Grimes 0-1 for S Byrne, Stephen Healy for K Lynch.
ST NICHOLAS: Alan Sweeney 0-1; Andrew Starrs, Kieran Floyd, Conor Brannigan; Keith Cluskey, Richie Kelly, John Breen; Adrian Gates, Brian Carter; Declan Heeney, Sean Donnelly, Darren Thornton; Roy Kierans 0-1, Paddy Murtagh 0-3, Brian Kerns 0-2. Subs: Kevin Walsh for R Kelly, Jason Maguire for S Connelly, Eddie Carr for J Breen.
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