Portlaoise enjoyed a very comfortable afternoon's work in Dundalk as they handed Louth champions St. Patrick's a 1-14 to 0-5 defeat in a lop-sided Leinster club SFC tie. The '05 All-Ireland finalists led from pillar to post against the Wee County representatives who looked very rusty after a seven week break from competitive action. In a fractious affair which saw referee Sean Carroll hand out 12 yellow cards, just six of the game's scores came from open play. Three points in quick succession by Peter McNulty had Portlaoise up and running early on and it wasn't until the 10th minute that Damien Connor (free) replied for the hosts. However the writing was on the wall for the Saints in the run-up to the interval when Portlaoise hit five points without reply with Barry Fitzgerald and McNulty hitting two apiece. Trailing by 0-2 to 0-9 on the restart, St. Pat's had a great chance to stem the tide but Karl White fired straight at Portlaoise 'keeper Michael Nolan. Portlaoise had no such ill luck minutes later when Danny Reddin blasted the ball into the St. Patrick's goal to leave eleven points (1-10 to 0-2) separating the sides. Portlaoise kept up the pressure to coast their way home even though the Louthmen had the satisfaction of notching the final three points of the game from Damien Connor, Karl White and Colin Goss. Tweet

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