Pats progress to business end in Louth

Leonard Gray St. Pats

St Patricks are through to the knockout phase of the Louth SFC after beating Roche Emmets in a winner-takes-all group encounter.

Going into Saturday evening’s Group Four Round Three clash at Haggardstown, with Dundalk Gaels having already beaten both teams to claim top place in the section, the Lordship men knew that nothing short of a win would suffice, with Roche needing only a draw to edge them out. St Patricks produced a solid display to prevail by 1-16 to 0-10 and keep their season alive.

Man of the Match Eoin O’Connor opened the scored and slotted a pair of two-pointers as the men in Green & White led by 0-8 to 0-6 at half time. Tadhg O’Connor, Joe Connor and Jack Murphy pointed to repel a Roche recovery when the action resumed, with the first-mentioned registering the only goal of the game two minutes from time.

There’s another shootout for a quarter-final place this afternoon when holders Naomh Mairtin, who have been in six of the last seven finals, face-off against St Fechins in Group One at Ardee. Both teams lost to St Josephs and the Mairtins have to win on Sunday to keep their defence of the Joe Ward Cup alive.

Calculators might be needed after the final Group Two game between Hunterstown Rovers and St Mochtas at Darver on Sunday night...

Following Hunterstown’s surprise three-point win over Marys of Ardee last weekend, the long and short of it is that a win, draw or five-point defeat would see Hunterstown safely through, along with Ardee (who defeated Mochtas by eight points in their opener and can’t be eliminated). Mochtas must win by six points or more to knock out the Rovers.