Louth GAA SFC: The Joes defeat reigning champions Jocks
St. Joseph’s 0-16 Naomh Máirtín 1-8
St Josephs claimed top spot in Group 1 of the Louth GAA Senior Football Championship when they proved too strong for reigning champions, Naomh Máirtín, at Darver on Monday evening.
Six unanswered points from the start of the second half provided the platform for the Joes on a night when they produced an impressive display in front of the posts.
On what was a bad night for the Joe Ward holders, they lost Louth captain to injury in the opening moments, and it didn’t get much better after that.
An early penalty helped them stay in touch, but they were never able to impose themselves on the game, and the Joes produced a strong second half to make it two wins from two.
The Monasterboice men will be hoping to get their defence back on track when they face St Fechins in a contest that will decide the runners-up spot in the group.
The Jocks suffered an early blow when Mulroy was forced off inside three minutes and then went behind to a Conal Smyth point. H
However, things did take a more positive turn on six minutes when a foot block on Val Leddy resulted in a penalty that was confidently dispatched by Darragh Dorian.
A two-pointer from Conal McCaul helped the Joes get back on terms at the end of the first quarter, and it was point for point for the remainder of the half as both teams battled for supremacy in what was an entertaining encounter.
Darragh Dorian and Dara McDonnell were on target for the Mairtins, as was Alan Quigley for the Joes, before McCaul had the final say with the equalising point to send the teams in level at 1-4 to 0-7.
The Joes sensed that the game was there for the taking and made the match-winning move after the restart with unanswered points from Quigley and McCaul before Gabriel Bell landed a double to open up a four-point gap.
The Máirtíns lost Adam Booth to a black card on 16 minutes, and when McCaul and Craig Doherty followed up to make it 0-13 to 1-7 it was hard to see the Joes letting this slip.
The champions did manage two two-pointers from Wayne Campbell and Jack Lynch in the closing ten minutes, but the Joes were not to be denied, and scores from Pearse Grimes Murphy and McCaul saw them home comfortably.
St Joseph's: Aaron Gray; Cian Sheridan, Aidan Kieran, Rian Devlin; Cormac McKewon, Gabriel Bell 0-2, Ben McKeown 0-1; David Kieran, Oisin Reidy; Conal McCaul 0-5 (2p), Craig Doherty 0-2, Michael O’Brien; Alan Quigley 0-3, Ben Collier, Conall Smyth 0-2.
Subs: Pearse Grimes Murphy 0-1 for M O’Brien, Conor Neary for Aidan Kieran,
Naomh Máirtín: Craig Lynch; Cian Sands, Thomas O’Sullivan, Conor Healy; Evan Whelan, Dara McDonnell 0-1, Jack Murphy; Adam Booth, Craig Callanan; Sean Healy, Sam Mulroy, Wayne Campbell 0-2 (2p); Ben Callanan, Val Leddy 0-1, Darragh Dorian 1-2.
Subs: Eric Winters for S Mulroy; Jack Lynch 0-2 (2p) for Ben Callanan; Mark Whelan for E Winters.