ST. PAT’S PULL AWAY Winners endure nervy spell before taking control

at Rathnew the Éire Óg defence before passing to Donal Fitzgerald for the opening score. McGettigan won the kick out and Aidan Dunne got up in support to slot over St. Pat’s second point.

St. Pat’s attacked again moments later with Shane Vickers shooting wide and it appeared like the team would dominate but Éire Óg and James Smullen had other ideas. He was fouled and duly converted a free after four minutes and then Michael Dunne got up in attack to shoot from long distance, forcing Ian Murphy to tip the ball over his crossbar.

St. Pat’s still controlled possession and wing forward’s Simon Bouchier and McGettigan soon put their side back into a two point lead again. However Éire Óg came back to level by the seventeenth minute, David Behan and Cian O’Flaherty scoring two beautiful points.

That was as close as it could get for Éire Óg though as St. Pat’s forged a lead that wasn’t relinquished. Bouchier was given too much space to score before Rory Marron was also in too much space to shoot. It dropped short but Conor O’Brien got a touch to divert it into the goal and open a 1-5 to 4 point lead by the twenty fourth minute. The goal was coming as St. Pat’s had a couple of chances before that and opened up the Éire Óg defence with ease.

O’Brien converted a free and McGettigan kicked over his second point for St. Pat’s in the next two minutes to extend the lead to six. However James Smullen closed out the half with a free and St. Pat’s led 1-07 to 5 points at half time.

St. Pat’s briefly opened a seven point lead in the second half with points from Donal Fitzgerald and Jordan Pettigrew but Eoin MacTeague’s goal, when he was found as a spare man in front of goal by James Smullen, brought Éire Óg back within four points. Smullen and Fitzgerald traded two points each in the next five minutes as the game swung back and forth frantically.

Smullen kicked his fifith and final free and corner back Matthew McGuire got forward to put two between the teams with ten minutes left to play and give the Greystones men hope.

However two long range frees off the ground by Rory Marron, the second following McGuire’s second yellow card, and an inspirational John Carton point saw off Éire Óg’s comeback. Almost on the stroke of full time Conor O’Brien got past his marker to shoot on goal and Donal Fitzgerald was on hand to convert the rebound for St. Pat’s second goal and a comfortable victory.

St. Pat’s scorers: Donal Fitzgerald 1-04; Conor O’Brien 1-01 (1f); Rory Marron (2f), Ciarán McGettigan, Simon Bouchier 0-02 each; Aidan Dunne, Jordan Pettigrew, John Carton 0-01 each.

Éire Óg scorers: James Smullen 0-05 (5f); Eoin MacTeague 1-00; Matthew McGuire, Michael Dunne, David Behan, Cian O’Flaherty 0-01 each.

St Patrick’s: Ian Murphy; Ronan Connolly, Lorcan Smullen, Barry Fitzgerald; Aidan Dunne, Christopher Kavanagh, Hugh Humby; Rory Marron, Bosco Guinan; Ciarán McGettigan, Shaun Vickers, Simon Bouchier; Conor O’Brien, Donal Fitzgerald, Jordan Pettigrew. Subs: Adam Cox for Ciarán McGettigan (HT); Colin O’Toole for Barry Fitzgerald (42 mins); Joe Quinn for Bosco Guinan (50 mins); John Carton for Simon Bouchier (50 mins).

Éire Óg: Eoin English; Matthew McGuire, Michael Walsh, Dermot Blake; Gavin Parslow, Leon Browne, Michael Dunne; Anthony Byrne, David Behan; Eoin MacTeague, James Cranley, James Wood; Cian O’Flaherty, James Smullen, Sean Lawless.

Referee: Darragh Byrne.