Gers ease drop fears

GERALDINES SEAN O’MAHONYS 0-13 0-11

JIM McEneaney proved the difference between the sides as Geraldines took a vital step away from the relegation zone at the Point Road.

The Louth star finished with eight points to his credit as the Gers held off a spirited second-half comeback from a weakened O’Mahony’s side.

It was the home team that had the better of the early exchanges, but scores from Barry Mackin and Stephen Kilcoyne were cancelled out by McEneaney and Shane O’Hanlon.

The visitors then stepped up the pace and with Paddy Hoey and Josh Arrowsmith among the scorers, they led by 0-9 to 0-4 at the break.

The O’Mahony’s came out battling in the second half and twice reduced the deficit to the minimum margin.

But crucially, they missed a close-range free soon after and the Geraldines took full advantage to break up the other end and create space for the excellent McEneaney to settle the issue with his eighth point of the evening.

GERALDINES: Sean McEneaney; Kevin Pepper, James Craven, Gareth Neacy; Jack Traynor, Gerard Hoey, Paul Clarke; Nicky Mackin, Paddy Hoey 0-1; Matt Corcoran, Shane O’Hanlon 0-1, Josh Arrowsmith 0-1; Glen Trainor 0-1, Jim McEneaney 0-8, Tiarnan Hand 0-1. Subs: Stephen Reidy for J Arrowsmith BC, Sean Thornton for T Hand.

SEAN O’MAHONYS: Seamus Quigley; Chris O’Neill, Ronan Byrne, Niall McLaughlin; Liam Dullaghan 0-1, Shane Brennan, Pat O’Brien; Conor Martin, David Dowling 0-1; Kyle Carroll, Stephen Kilcoyne 0-4, Barry Mackin 0-5; Liam McKinney, Sean Keating, Vinny Smith. Subs: Owen Hanratty for N McLaughlin, David Crawley for L McKinney.