Sport

St Patrick's claim peninsula bragging rights

Louth SFC Final/St Patrick's 1-9 Cooley Kickhams 0-9: St Patrick's claimed their third Louth title in five years with victory…

Mon Sept 24 2007 - 01:00

Louth SFC Final/St Patrick's 1-9 Cooley Kickhams 0-9:St Patrick's claimed their third Louth title in five years with victory over arch-rivals Cooley Kickhams in Dundalk yesterday.

An excellent opening quarter that yielded 1-3 did the damage as the Lordship-based club led virtually from start to finish.

St Patrick's peninsula neighbours opened the scoring through David Hughes, but Gerry Cumiskey's men hit an early purple patch, with points from Seán Connor and Karl White.

Full forward Connor then won his team a seventh minute penalty which White converted. And Louth defender, Dessie Finnegan added another single soon afterwards as St Patrick's assumed a 1-3 to 0-1 advantage.

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St Patrick's continued to dictate proceedings as the half progressed, but Cooley put on a late burst to close the gap to a goal at the interval, 1-6 to 0-6.

The pace slowed considerably after the break and the third quarter produced only two scores as St Patrick's stretched their lead through Ray Finnegan and Damien Connor.

Brian White and Conor McGuinness cancelled those efforts out and Cooley threatened to make a game of it in the closing stages when Brian White converted his third free of the afternoon.

However, the Louth forward missed an easier free on the stroke of full-time and Seán Connor blasted over his second point of the match at the other end to put a goal in it once more.

A goal was Cooley's only option at that stage and substitute John Kane came close to forcing a replay, but his fine effort was tipped wide by St Patrick's goalkeeper Robbie Arthur.

ST PATRICK'S: R Arthur; D White, C Goss, J O'Hare; L Oliver, O Zamboglou, R Finnegan (0-1); P Keenan (0-1), P Mallon; S Finnegan, E Carroll, D Finnegan (0-1); D Connor (0-3, two 45s), S Connor (0-2, one 45), K White (1-1). Subs: D MacArtain for Zamboglou (26 mins); D O'Connor for MacArtain (54 mins); D Murphy for D O'Connor (59 mins).

COOLEY KICKHAMS: S Quigley; A Kane, J Clerkin, R Brennan; A Page, C McGuinness (0-1), K White; B Donnelly (0-1), MJ Hanlon; P Sheelan (0-2, one free), M Thornton (0-1), A McGuinness; S McDonald, D Hughes (0-1), B White (0-3 frees). Subs: S O'Neill for Hanlon (25 mins); J Kane for Thornton (half-time); J Long for S McDonald (38 mins); G Long for A McGuinness (48 mins); D Bailey for K White (60 mins).

Referee: P Kneel.