St Mochtas 1-10
Longwood 0-11

St Mochtas booked their place in the quarter-finals of the Leinster Intermediate Club Championship when they held off the challenge of Longwood after extra-time in Ardee on Saturday afternoon.

Declan Byrne followed up his Man of the Match performance in the victory over St Fechins by turning in another inspirational display with a personal tally of seven points, while Philip Englishby’s first half goal also proved crucial.

It was fitting that it was Byrne who kicked the decisive point in extra-time to see his team come out on top in a dramatic finale.

Despite conceding the first point of the game, it was the Mochtas who had the better of the opening quarter and pointed through Ciaran McMahon, Barry Mulholland and Byrne. After failing to take advantage of a couple of goal chances, the Louth Village side saw their dominance rewarded when Englishby scored the only goal of the game to put his side 1-3 to 0-2 ahead.

The Meath side responded well and got themselves back into contention when they kicked four of the next five points to cut the gap to 1-4 to 0-6 at the break.

The second half remained very tight as the lead changed hands on a couple of occasions before an effort from Byrne looked to have won it for the Mochtas. However, there was late drama as Ryan Moore fired over the equaliser to send the game into extra time.

The Louth champions scored the only point of the first half and although Longwood level after the restart, Byrne struck the last two points late on to send his team through to the next round.

St Mochtas: Jason Callan; David Lennon, Philip Englishby 1-0, Liam Lawlor; Gareth O’Reilly, Andrew English, Conor Garland; Darren McMahon, Barry Mulholland 0-1; Liam McGranaghan, Gerry Garland, Ciaran McMahon 0-2; Declan Byrne 0-7, Stephen McCooey, Emlyn Clerkin. Sub: Danny Kindlon for G O’Reilly.

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