Four sent-off as Pat's down O'Mahony's to qualify for SFC quarter-finals

Anchor Tours SFC group three

St. Patrick’s 0-13 Sean O’Mahony’s 0-9

Tenacious and with the needle that has become traditional on occasions when St. Patrick’s and Sean O’Mahony’s meet, Saturday evening’s clash was won by the Lordship men. Forgiveness is sought if this story has been told before.

O’Mahonys’ whirlwind run over the course of the last five years has seen them figure almost everybody out bar Pat’s, whose riddle was once again beyond them in Dowdallshill, their failure to find an answer meaning a relegation play-off looms.

On the other hand, it’s the third year in succession that the seven-time winners have advanced from the group phase and into the last eight, something which manager Paddy White was keen to stress the significance of.

“As a club, as an area, as a community, we need to get into the quarter-finals of the senior championship every year if possible,” he told The Democrat post-match.

DISMISSALS

Four players were red carded within the hour, two from either side. O’Mahonys’ Rob Galligan and Chris O’Neill can have no arguments for the parts they played in the manifestation of a scuffle into a full-blooded game of handbags. Likewise with Pats’ Conor Grogan, but the decision to hand the latter’s team-mate, Danny O’Connor, the same punishment looked harsh, given that he spent much of the collision time on the ground holding his head.

Though referee David Fedigan’s job was ferociously difficult with the contest at boiling point almost from the off. 

The match-winner was Pats’ Cathal Grogan, his six first half points proving pivotal to the outcome favouring his side. Indeed, he accounted for all bar one of his team’s seven scores pre-break, as they held a three-point lead.

It took O’Mahony’s nine minutes into the second half to register from play, through their scorer-in-chief Stephen Kilcoyne, who bagged seven points, thus it’s a testament to their renowned resolve that they remained in contention until the bitter end.

And they got to within one, too, with four points on the trot in the second half, only for Paddy Keenan and Jack Murphy to push Pat’s out to three clear.

“We had worked on trying to press early in the game and that seemed to work really well for us,” White added.

“We opened up a bit of a gap and then a few frees seemed to keep them in the game.

“As we know with the O’Mahony’s, they’re a really tough, hard team to beat and put away. That’s the way it developed the whole way through the game. It took us a while to get going in the second half and they got it back close.

“When the boys got sent off it opened up for us a bit more and it suited us the way we were playing.”

The final gap stood at four, but with one less in the difference, Conor Martin’s barnstorming run through the heart of Pats’ defence saw him poke off target. It was the closest Martin O’Rourke’s men came to the three-pointer they badly needed - and proved to be the last major hurrah of O’Mahonys’ championship.

St. Patrick’s: Martin McEneaney; Jason Woods, Dessie Finnegan, Ross Murphy; Ciarán Murphy, Eoghan Lafferty, Darren O’Hanlon (0-1); Martin Breen (0-1), Jack Murphy (0-2); Paddy Keenan (0-1, free), Leonard Grey (0-2), Aidan McCann; Tadhg O’Connor, Cathal Grogan (0-6, five frees), Daniel O’Connor

Subs: Conor Grogan for T O’Connor (37), Ryan Duffy for Cathal Grogan (60, BC)

Sean O’Mahony’s: Kevin Brennan; Chris O’Neill, Ronan Byrne, Kian McEvoy; Rob Galligan, Shane Brennan, Liam Dullaghan; Keith McLaughlin, Shane Kerrigan; Jonathan Connolly (0-1), Stephen Fisher (0-1, free), Terence Kelly; Stephen Kilcoyne (0-7, four frees), Ben McLaughlin, Kyle Carroll

Subs: Conor Martin for Carroll (HT), Niall McLaughlin for McEvoy (49), McEvoy for Kelly (55), Carroll for Connolly (59)

Referee: David Fedigan (Hunterstown Rovers)