Young Burns is Hunterstown's King Rover in thrilling IFC win over St. Fechin's

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Hunterstown Rovers 1-14 St. Fechin's 0-16

Substitute Dean Burns struck a point five minutes into injury-time to give Hunterstown Rovers a dramatic victory over St. Fechin’s in an incident- packed encounter at The Gaelic Grounds on Saturday night.

The Termonfeckin side went into the game as favourites to book their passage to the quarter-final, but not only did they come up against an in-form Rovers side, but they will feel that luck most certainly deserted them on the night.

Nothing seemed to go right for Division Two league leaders as by the third minute of the second half they had lost all three Louth players – Bevan Duffy picking up a black card, while Eoghan Duffy and Ronan Holcroft went off injured. It got even worse as goalkeeper Niall McDonnell was sent off with 10 minutes remaining.

It was fairly nip and tuck in the first half, with the teams evenly matched, as Fechin’s went in with a slender, 0-8 to 0-7 lead.
In the second half Fechin’s went 0-12 to 0-7 up in the first five minutes and although Hunterstown lost Keith Brennan to a black card, they cut the gap to 0-13 to 0-11 after 50 minutes with the help of scores from Glen Matthews.

Paul Carrie’s goal from a penalty then gave Hunterstown the lead for the first time, only for Fechin’s to draw level, but Hunterstown clinched the win with a point from Burns.

Hunterstown Rovers: Niall Carrie; Brian Matthews, Patrick Taaffe, Martin Lennon; Keith Brennan, Richard Taaffe, David Finn (0-1); Tony McKenna, Ryan Ward (0-2); Brendan Lennon, Paul Carrie (1-0), Alan Landy (0-2); Ryan Burns (0-2), Glen Matthews (0-4), Muiris O Suilleabhain

Subs: Euan Woodlock for B Matthews, Pádraig Matthews (0-2) for Brennan (BC), Dean Burns (0-1)

St. Fechin’s: Niall McDonnell; Harry Haughney (0-1), Niall McCabe, Danny Burnell; Pádraig O’Donohoe, Bevan Duffy, Matthew Flanagan; Paul Matthews (0-3), Donal Ryan; Brian Devlin (0-1), Ronan Holcroft (0-2), Joseph Corrigan (0-4); Seán Kerrisk (0-1), Eoghan Duffy, Niall Devlin

Subs: Stephen McEvoy for B Duffy (BC), Ryan Walsh (0-4) for E Duffy, Adam O’Neill for Holcroft, Cody O’Neill for McEvoy, Evan Kelly for Ryan

Referee: Thomas Brennan (Westerns)