Pats add to Gers woes

ST Patricks claimed their first win since the third round of fixtures and in the process keep the pressure on the Geraldines at the foot of the Division 1 table.

The Haggardstown side went into the game with confidence boosted by their first win of the season over Dundalk Gaels in midweek. However, they just couldn’t repeat that level of performance against a Pats side who bounced back from losing to Naomh Mairtin on Tuesday.

The game at Lordship saw the home side start slowly and after conceding the first point of the game they didn’t get off the mark until the 19th minute when Danny O’Connor found the target pm 19 minutes.

However, they upped the pace in the closing ten minutes as a goal from Cathal Grogan along with points from Paddy Keenan, Aidan McCann and Conor Grogan made it 1-4 to 0-2 at half time.

The Gers were finding it hard to keep pace with their opponents at that stage and it didn’t get any better in the second half as they failed to close the gap against a dominant Pats.

Sean Connor and Aaron Rogers were among the scores as the hosts kicked four in a row at the start of the second half to effectively put the game beyond the Geraldines.

Further points from Sean Connor and Danny O’Connor in the closing stages helped complete a comfortable win that moves the Pats on to seven points in the table. ST PATRICKS: Sean Connor 0-2; Aaron Rogers 0-1, Darren O’Hanlon, Daniel Rice; Conor Grogan 0-1, Dessie Finnegan, Eoghan Lafferty; Paddy Keenan 0-2, Thomas McCann; Evan White 0-1, Danny O’Connor 0-4, Leonard Gray; Sean McGeough, Cathal Grogan 1-0, Aidan McCann 0-4. Subs: Ray Finnegan, Gavin Gregory, Ross Murphy, Cormac Barry.

GERALDINES: Darrin Kearney; Sean Watters, Robbie Lynch, Jack Traynor; Dan Corcoran, James Craven, James Corrigan; Paddy Hoey, Matt Corcoran; Kevin Pepper 0-1, Gareth Neacy 0-1, Shaun Callan; Ronan Greene, Michael Rogers 0-4, Shane Rogers. Subs: Paul Clarke for J Craven, Shane Thornton for P Hoey, Andy Lynch for S Rogers.