Naomh Moninne through to Louth Senior Championship final despite defeat to Knockbridge

Naomh Moninne are through to their first Louth Senior Championship final since 2019 despite suffering a one point defeat to Knockbridge in this tough encounter played in Dowdallshill on Thursday night.

The Dundalk side will now look at stopping a St Fechins' 3 in a row when the sides meet in the Final at St Brigid's Park on Sunday afternoon (3.30pm).

They trailed by 0-4 to 0-2 after 12 minutes with Shane Fennell accounting for all Knockbridge's early points.

Top scorer Dylan Carey (free) and young Sam Phelan were on target with the Moninne points.

A quick brace of Carey points including one direct from a sideline cut had Moninne back on terms.

The sides shared the next four points before good points from the experienced Andrew Mackin and Carey again, had the black and amber outfit two up on 22 minutes.

The lead changed hands from the resultant puck out when early substitute Aidan O Brien set up Neil Thornton to fire past keeper Donal Connolly from 20 metres out, 1-6 to 0-8.

The village outfit were still one to the good before county colleague's Conor Murphy and Mark Gahan combined with the latter firing over from the right wing.

Eoin Murphy, who is more accustomed to playing competitively with a driver in his hand on the golf course, netted an important goal from a tight angle in first half injury time. 

Carey and Fennell exchanged late points to leave Moninne leading by 1-12 to 1-9 at the break. 

Knockbridge tied up matters with three early points on the resumption from the sticks of Shane Fennell (free), Liam Molloy and David Kettle.

Moninne responded with good points from Sam Phelan and Carey before Conor Murphy saw his goal bound effort saved at the expense of a 65 metre free by keeper Conor Kerrigan. 

The sides were tied at 1-14 a piece on 45 minutes following another brace of Fennell points.

Knockbridge then gained the upperhand with five points to just one from their opponents to leave them within striking distance of the seven points victory (score difference) they required at 1-19 to 1-15.

Kyle Rafferty settled the nerves of all the Moninne supporters when he netted a terrific injury time goal set up by Conor Murphy with Murphy himself completing his sides scoring with a point.

Shane Fennell fired a match winning score for Knockbridge late into injury time and they also had Aidan O Brien sent off for a second yellow card.

However Moninne had done enough to seal their place in the final and are one match away from getting their hands back on the Paddy Kelly Cup.

KNOCKBRIDGE: Conor Kerrigan; James Searson, Ronan Byrne, Ricky McKeown; Andrew McCrave, Liam Molloy (0-2), Jake McNamara; Robert Wallace (0-1), James Costello (0-1); Shane Fennell (0-11, 7 frees), Gareth Hall, David Kettle (0-3); Brian Coughlan, Sean Flynn, Neil Thornton (1-2).

Subs: Aidan O Brien for B Coughlan (14), Ben Goss Kieran for J Searson (40), 

NAOMH MONINNE: Donal Connolly; Sean Magill, Donal Lee, Noel Callan; James Murphy, Aaron McGuinness Smith, Diarmuid Murphy (0-1); Mattie Fee, Mark Gahan (0-1); Kyle Rafferty (1-0), Dylan Carey (0-8, 4 free), Andrew Mackin (0-2); Conor Murphy (0-2), Eoin Murphy (1-0), Sam Phelan (0-2).

Subs: Tadgh Dowdall for N Callan (30), Donal Kelly for Donal Lee (half time),Cathal Azzorpardi for K Rafferty (60), Paul Challoner for A McGuinness Smith (60).

REFEREE: Peter Mullen.