Rhode remain in hunt

Rhode (Offaly) 2-09 St Patrick’s (Louth) 0-10

Rhode opened with a stiff breeze but with Paddy Keenan running the show for St Patrick’s, the Louth club had three of the game’s first four points. However Niall McNamee then set up Sullivan for the first goal after ten minutes and Rhode built on that score to lead 1-6 to 0-5 at the interval.

An excellent team goal, finished by McNamee with ten minutes to play, appeared to make the result safe but St Patrick’s came with a late charge but were repelled by some desperate defending and two excellent saves by Ken Garry.

Rhode now advance to a quarter-final with Navan O’Mahonys on Sunday week.

Scorers for Rhode: N McNamee 0-6 (0-5f), A Sullivan 1-1, C McNamee 1-0, N Darby 0-2 (0-1f).

Scorers for St Patrick’s: P Keenan 0-5 (0-1f), K White 0-3 (0-2f), D O’Connor & O’O’Connor 0-1 each.

RHODE: K Garry; J Kavanagh, E Rigney, E Byrne; C Heavey, G McNamee, J McPadden; A McNamee, C McNamee; N Darby, P Sullivan, D Garry; P McPadden, A Sullivan, N McNamee.

Subs: G O’Connell for Garry (19), R McNamee for P McPadden (50), S Hannon for Darby (53), S Sullivan for G McNamee (55)

ST PATRICK’S: S Connor; D Finnegan, D O’Hanlon, K Toner; R Finnegan, C Goss, O Zamboglou; P Keenan, P Mallon; A McCann, K White, E White; D Lafferty, D O’Connor, E O’Connor.

Subs: E Lafferty for E White (32), E Breen for Goss (46), S Cumiskey for Mallon (53) R Murphy for O’Hanlon (60 — B/C)

Referee: Damien Brazil.