White penalty turns the tide for St Pat’s

St Patrick’s (Louth) 1-09 Rhode (Offaly) 1-07

Conditions were difficult, with the early morning rain and crossfield wind making handling very difficult.

Nevertheless, the standard was pretty dreadful, particularly in the first half, which ended at 0-3 apiece. St Pat’s kicked eight wides in that period, against Rhode’s three, although many of those were shots from distance.

The crucial score arrived in the 36th minute, when the lively Eoin O’Connor had his legs taken away from him by Ciarán Heavey when about to shoot for goal.

Joe Curley had no option but to award a penalty and Karl White finished confidently, sending Kenneth Garry the wrong way.

O’Connor pointed almost immediately afterwards, before both sides butchered two-on-one goal opportunities, while Sean Connor made a terrific save from Anton Sullivan.

Critically, St Patrick’s chance led to Garry handling the ball in big square. Eamon Carroll converted the resulting free and the Louth men held the upper hand for the remainder of the game.

Two Alan McNamee frees reduced the margin to a goal but a brace of points from raiding half-back, Eamon Breen helped put six between them with time running out.

Brian Darby kicked a good score for Rhode before McNamee finished from close range, from Paraic Sullivan’s free.

St Pat’s had to deal with a couple of late scares but in the end, they held on to advance to a meeting with Kildare champions, Sarsfields.

“We won the Louth championship with a bit to spare on the scoreboard – maybe not in the game but on the scoreboard – so we didn’t know where we were today, could we rise to that level” said St Pat’s manager Fergal Reel.

“In the first half, I thought we were a bit tentative and nervous early on but as the game progressed we grew into it. We probably should have been ahead at half time. We’d a lot of wides in the first half. We addressed a few things at half-time that helped and we played better in the second half.

Scorers for St Patrick’s: K White 1-1(1-0pen); E Carroll 0-3(2fs); E Breen 0-2; P Keenan, E O’Connor, E White 0-1 each

Rhode: N McNamee 1-5(0-4fs); M Dunne, B Darby 0-1 each

ST PATRICK’S: S Connor; J O’Hare, D O’Hanlon, D Finnegan; E Breen, C Goss, O Zamboglou; P Keenan, P Mallon; E Carroll, K White, A McGann; R Finnegan, K White, D O’Connor.

Sub: E White for D O’Connor (50); M Breen for Carroll (58)

RHODE: K Garry; E Rigney, S Sullivan, J McPadden; B Darby, E Byrne, C Heavey; A McNamee, C McNamee; P Sullivan, P Kellaghan, M Dunne; P McPadden, A Sullivan, N McNamee.

Subs: S Hannon for Heavey (49); G McNamee for Byrne (56); C Flynn for P McPadden (56)

Referee: J Curley (Meath).