Athlone CC 2-6 Portmarnock CS 0-10:Both teams struggled with their shooting in this qualifier in Portmarnock, with Athlone's two first-half goals deciding this contest.
The visitors had put up two points through Robert Kenny and captain John Egan, when Portmarnock were awarded a penalty after 10 minutes. But Joe McMahon went down to his right to save Graham Rusk's kick.
Almost immediately Athlone broke up field with Pádraig Cunningham's high ball causing the keeper to palm his effort into the path of Kenny who duly converted into the back net.
The home side were then rocked by a second goal when Adam Ward and Egan combined to set up Darren Dolan.
ATHLONE CC: J McMahon; C Duggan, A Hanna, N Byrne; N Daly, D Donoghue, A Ward; A Fitzpatrick, E Sheehy (0-1); J Egan (0-2), M McCallan, J Nicell; D Dolan (1-0), R Kenny (1-2), P Cunningham. Subs: I Coffey (0-1f)for Nicell (36 mins), S Relihan for Cunningham (44 mins), J Beirne for Ward (55 mins).
PORTMARNOCK CS: R O'Driscoll; E Dromgoole, S McHale, L Johnson (0-1); C Fahy, B Reinhart, J Boyle; S Kenny (0-1), K O'Brien (0-2, 2 45s); S O'Callaghan (0-1), J Briggs (0-1), I Loftus; R O'Sullivan, G Rusk (0-4, 2f), C Murphy. Subs: N Sullivan for O'Callaghan (25 mins), J Walsh for Loftus (38 mins).
Referee: S McCormack(Meath)
