Efficient St Fechins hurlers march on in Leinster with emphatic victory

LEINSTER JUNIOR CLUB HURLING CHAMPIONSHIP 

ST FECHINS 1-18 DUNDERRY 0-10

The hurlers of St Fechins became the third Louth side to progress to the next round of a Leinster club competition this season. 

Having recently added the league title to their championship success from earlier this summer, they produced probably their best performance to see off Meath Intermediate champions Dunderry with plenty to spare in this Leinster Junior encounter played in Darver last Saturday afternoon. 

Their reward is a quarter final clash against Wicklow outfit Kilcoole on Saturday week, November 12th.

The Louth champions gave their supporters plenty to cheer about in the opening few minutes as each one of their full forward line of Paul Matthews, Sean Kerrisk and Bob Grace scored good points from play.

Dunderry responded with their first score on 5 minutes when midfielder Donagh O Laoire fired over a free from 60 metres. From the resultant puck out Seaghan Conneely restored his sides early advantage with a good point from the right wing.

A good three man move involving his full forward line colleagues saw Dunderry corner forward Adam Kelly pointing to cut the arrears to two.

A goal mouth scramble involving several players should have yielded a Fechins goal but somehow the visitors defence cleared their lines at the expense of a 65-metre free, which top scorer Paddy Lynch struck over with aplomb. 

Lynch added another free to leave the Termonfeckin outfit 0-6 to 0-2 to the good on the quarter hour.

A poor clearance from Fechins keeper Ruairi Morrissey was picked up by Donagh O Laoire who added to his earlier score, this time from play. The same player added another brace of points from frees and in between these efforts Bob Grace took a pass from Sean Hodgins to fire over a good point from 50 metres, leaving it at 0-7 to 0-5.

The Louth men’s lead was cut to the minimum on 27 minutes when O Laoire fired over his fourth free of the half.

His side wasted a good goal scoring opportunity to save keeper Morrissey's blushes, however late points from Hodgins and Paddy Lynch from a 65-metre free, had the Fechins leading by 0-9 to 0-6 at the break.

They doubled their advantage early on the resumption when Bob Grace got in behind the defence before firing low to the net from close range. Paddy Lynch added a point from a free from the right wing before Liam Coogan responded with a badly needed point for the Meath outfit on 37 minutes. 

Another brace of points from Paddy Lynch close range frees now had the Fechins eight points to the good with a quarter hour remaining.  O Laoire and Lynch then exchanged points with the latter's coming from open play, set up by the impressive centre half back Peter Fortune. 

Dunderry wasted a good effort on goal, while Lynch fired over a free from the half way line that was awarded for a foul on himself and the lead was now set at ten points.

O’Laoire took his personal tally to eight points with another brace of frees, however his side would not score again in the final ten minutes of this match. They also finished the tie with 14 men as centre half back Conor O’Shea was send off for an off the ball incident. 

Watching Louth manager Paul McCormack will have been impressed with this Fechins performance, as he looks at putting his panel together for next season.

The winners added four late points from the sticks of David Stephenson and the impressive Paddy Lynch who ended with a tally of eleven points.

Niall McEnaney's side will take a lot of confidence from this victory, where every player from 1 to 15 played their part and they will now look forward to their quarter final date against the Wicklow champions Kilcoole at a Louth venue yet to confirmed.

ST FECHINS: Ruairi Morrissey; Cormac McAuley, Oisin Byrne, Conor Higgins; David Stephenson (0-1, free), Peter Fortune, Conor Matthews; Danny Morgan, Donal Ryan; Paddy Lynch (0-11, 0-9 frees), Sean Hodgins (0-1), Seaghan Conneely (0-1); Sean Kerrisk (0-1), Bob Grace (1-2), Paul Matthews (0-1). Subs: Ryan Walsh for C Higgins (HT), Ross Berkery for S Hodgins (HT), Barry Devlin for S Kerrisk (46), Michael Byrne for B Grace (54), Jamie McDonnell for D Ryan (60).

DUNDERRY: Jack Fagan; Mickey Dowdall, Conor Dempsey, Ronan Brady; Aaron Feeney, Conor O’Shea, Niall O Laoire; Donagh O Laoire (0-8, 0-7 frees), Lake Martyn; Conor Leavy, Jamie Leavy, Ciaran Brady; Adam Kelly (0-1), Liam Coogan (0-1), David Gilkeson. Subs: David McCormack for C Brady (HT), Niall Darcy for D Gilkeson (49), Christopher Fitzgerald for L Coogan (54).

REFEREE: Matthew Redmond (Kildare).