St. Patricks Minors overcome slow start

St. Patricks minors overcame a slow start to beat Dundalk Gaels by a point in Dundalk on Monday night.

Gaels raced into an early 4 point lead and with Cathal Grogan and Rory Duffy both picking up early yellow cards St. Patricks struggled to settle into the game. Adam Finnegan opened the scoring for St. Patricks after 10 minutes with Dundalk Gaels immediately responding, however a free from Cathal Grogan and point from Cian Duffy helped settle St. Pats.

Dundalk Gaels responded with a free to bring the gap to 3 however after great play from St.Patricks Tadhg O’Connor finished it off with a fine shot into the back of the net to bring the sides level. The goal helped spur the away side on with further points from Steven Garland (2) and Jack Murphy helping St. Patricks go in at the break with a 2 point lead.

St. Patricks came out strong in the 2nd half with Jack Murphy getting the opening point of the half before a 2nd goal from Tadhg O’Connor helped extend the Pats lead to 6 points.

Both sides exchanged points before Dundalk Gaels added 4 unanswered points to reduce the gap to just 2 points. Eoin Byrne however helped settle the Pats with their 3rd goal to extend the lead back to 5.

St.Patricks were dealt a late below with Rory Duffy receiving a 2nd yellow and Dundalk Gaels started to pile on the pressure adding 4 points to reduce the lead to a point. St.Patricks however had defended well at crucial times and Richard Duffy in particular helped stop the Dundalk Gaels attack which proved crucial in the end with St.Patricks securing a 1 point victory.