Saints keep their treble bid alive

St Fechin’s 1-14 Knockbridge 1-12 ANCHOR TOURS SHC SEMI-FINAL ST FECHIN’S exacted revenge for their Senior Hurling League final defeat to Knockbridge with a gutsy championship semi-final success at The Grove on Saturday afternoon.

The Paddy Kelly Cup holders kept their three-in-a-row tilt firmly on track with group stage winners Naomh Moninne standing between the Termonfeckin men and another county title.

As well as the league final defeat, Knockbridge won the group stage meeting between these two sides last month, so they too were hoping for a threein-a-row of sorts on Saturday.

But it was the county champions who bossed proceedings from the start and while former Louth hitman Shane Fennell did his best to keep the ‘Bridge in touch, they never really looked like pulling off a comebac once Vincent Hynes netted the opening goal midway through the second-half.

A late goal from sub Ronan Curran and a red card for Fechin’s goalscorer Hynes gave them a sliver of hope, but time ran out on the Village outfit.

ST. FECHIN’S: Stephen Hackett; Robert Moynagh, Darren McDonnell, Brian Devlin; Wayne Treacy 0-1, Cathal Ryan, Óisín Byrne; Ian Connor, Donal Ryan 0-1; Paddy Lynch 0-7, Seaghan Conneely 0-1, Niall Devlin 0-1; Vincent Hynes 1-0, Michael Ryan 0-3, David Stephenson.

KNOCKBRIDGE: Kevin McNally; Stephen Kettle, Brian Buckley, Gavin Kane; Mark Wallace, Conor Deane, Andrew Smyth; James Costello, Gerry McKeown; David Kettle, Ronan Byrne, Sean Marry 0-1; Shane Fennell 0-9, David Dunne, Seán Brennan 0-1. Subs: Robert Wallace 0-1 for Marry, Peter Brennan for Dunne, Ronan Curran 1-0 for David Kettle, Liam Molloy for Brennan, Ronan Mulholland for Kane.

REFEREE: Jim O’Rourke.