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St Patrick's call it right

St Patricks Navan 3-17 St Peters Wexford 0-12: A positional switch and a change of tactics completely transformed this Leinster…

Sat Jan 20 2007 - 00:00

St Patricks Navan 3-17 St Peters Wexford 0-12:A positional switch and a change of tactics completely transformed this Leinster Schools' SFC A round two qualifier at the O'Hanrahan's GFC grounds, Carlow, yesterday.

Holders Navan trailed St Peter's by two points seven minutes into the second half. However, St Patrick's made a tactical switch at half-time that saw Brian Sheridan go from midfield to full forward, Stephen Moran making the move in the opposite direction.

But with Peter's impressive midfielders Enda Murphy and Seán Ó Corcora picking up where they had left off in the opening period, Colm O'Rourke and his fellow mentors must have been tempted to reverse the move. The Meath side persevered, however, repeatedly taking the direct route via the long ball, and were rewarded with three goals from Sheridan and Dara Smyth (two).

ST PATRICK'S: B Carolan; B McGrane, K Lynch, G Sheridan; D Morgan, D Maguire, B Carlton; B Sheridan (1-2, 2 frees), C O'Sullivan; R Barry (0-1), J Power (0-3), D Smyth (2-5); J Regan, S Moran (0-1), J Owens. Subs: C O'Reilly (0-1) for Barry, J Rogers (0-3) for Regan, G Reynolds (0-1) for Owens.

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ST PETER'S: P Gannon; B O'Flaherty, J Leacy, S Murphy; B O'Connor, C Walsh, C O'Shaughnessy; E Murphy (0-1), S Ó Corcora (0-3); D Furlong (0-2), S O'Sullivan (0-1), E Doyle; K Redmond (0-3), L Murphy, N McLoughlin. Subs: W Devereux (0-1) for Doyle, J Kelly (0-1) for O'Connor, M Fogarty for McLoughlin, F Whelan for Furlong, C Daye for O'Sullivan.

Referee: John Conway (Laois).

Athlone CC 2-8 Good Counsel 1-8:Community College Athlone progressed to the knockout stages of the Leinster Senior Football Championship thanks to a hard-earned victory at Stradbally yesterday.

Playing with a breeze in the first half, Athlone got off to a tonic start when full forward Jaydean Nicell score a goal after only five minutes.

Points from Ian Coffey made it 1-3 to 0-4 at the interval, the O'Gorman brothers, Pádraig and Michael, accounting for the Good Counsel scores.

Good Counsel looked the better side on the resumption and points from Tom Fitzharris and Michael O'Gorman narrowed the gap to two points.

But two great points from Ian Coffey restored the Athlone lead and after a great run Neil Rattigan set up Ian Byrne for a brilliant goal 10 minutes from time.

Good Counsel's goal came from a penalty, which James O'Shea converted.

ATHLONE: D McHugh; J Byrne, A Burke, D Harney; O Sheehy, J Dolan, L Downey; M Fitzgerald, C McHugh (0-1); J Egan (0-1), N Mulligan, N Rattigan; I Coffey (0-6), S Lawless, J Nicell (1-0). Subs: I Byrne (1-0) for S Lawless; D Lennon for D Harney.

GOOD COUNSEL: D Kavanagh; S Grace, R Nolan, M Crowdall; M Cowman, PJ Carroll, D Bridges; K Kehoe, P Whelan; M Moloney, P O'Gorman (0-1), M O'Gorman (0-2); J O'Shea (1-2), T Fitzharris (0-3), E Kent. Subs: P Kehoe for S Grace; D Murphy for M Moloney.

Referee: P Kehoe (Carlow).