Gaels earn bragging rights

YOUNG IRELANDS 0-10

DUNDALK Gaels earned the early-season local bragging rights after scoring a three point victory over Young Irelands in the Paddy Sheelan Cup at Darver on Thursday night. Both sides went into this Group C clash looking for their first points of the campaign but it was the men from The Ramparts that came out on top with the help of goals from Eanna McArdle and Thomas O’Connell.

McArdle was in fine form from the opening whistle as he struck two early points with Derek Maguire and James Prendergast replying for Young Irelands. O’Connell struck the first goal of the game on 18 minutes but the Irelanders fought back and a late point from Cian O Naraigh had the teams level at 1-3 to 0-6.

The second half was also evenly contested but two minutes after the restart McArdle struck what proved to be the decisive goal, with the Young Irelands unable to claw back the deficit. DUNDALK GAELS: Joe O’Donoghue; Mark Hanna, Jamie Faulkner, James Lynch; Adrian Rafferty, Gary Shevlin, Andrew Curley; David Maloney, Errol Boyle 0-1; David McComish, Sean Murray, Jason Clarke; Thomas O’Connell 1-0, Eanna McArdle 1-4, Dylan McKeown 0-1. Sub: Andrew Coleman 0-1, Stephen Murphy, John O’Hare, Ronan O’Callaghan, Kyle Rafferty.

YOUNG IRELANDS: Conor Black; Stephen Bellew, Cian O Naraigh 0-1, Peter McCourt; Derek Maguire 0-2, Jamie Brown, Paddy O’Callaghan; Peter Nixon, Sean McLoughlin; Peter McStravick 0-1, Jordan O’Donoghue, James Prendergast 0-4; Caolan McCabe, Dean Maguire 0-2, Aaron Murray. Sub: Cian O’Donoghue for A Murray.