St Pats 1-10
Rathkenny 1-06

Rathkenny went down by four points on Friday evening August 30th against St Pats in Ashbourne and with Skyrne winning by 17 points against Oldcastle, Rathkenny finish second in Group B.

Rathkenny playing with wind advantage opened the scoring through a Brian Lenehan free in the first minute. However emarkably they failed to score again in the half. St Pats took advantage and levelled matters on three minutes. The Stamullen men scored a goal on ten minutes and added three further points in as many minutes to lead 1-4 to 0-1 at the end of the first quarter. Rathkenny were off target on a number of occasions as St Pats added a twentieth minute free to lead by seven at the break.

Rathkenny upped the intensity and controlled the scoring stakes for the opening fifteen minutes of the second half. Jack Gore sent over from a free on 31 minutes. Donal Curtis sent over on forty and Jack Gore added two further frees on 44 and 45 minutes to leave three between the sides. St Pats then upped their game and sent over four in a row between the 49th and 53rd minutes to lead by seven. When they popped another point over with five minutes left they were in front by eight. Rathkenny kept plugging away and after a great passing move, full back James Macken was on the edge of the square and he calmly buried to the net to reduce the gap to five with three minutes left. Jack Gore sent over a free on 59 minutes and Rathkenny created three more chances in injury time, all of which went the wrong side of the posts. So Rathkenny finish the group stages in second place on score difference. Few would have predicted this at the start of the year.

They now have a quarter final to look forward to against second place in Group A.

Rathkenny - J. Martin; Joe Gore, J. Macken (1-0), R. Martin; D. Donegan, T. McKeever, D. Keogan; J. Donegan, R. Curtis; B. Lenehan (0-1), D. Smith, J. Gore (0-4); D. Curtis (0-1), C. Meade, O. Elliott. Subs - S. Crosbie for McKeever, B. Carolan for Smith Tweet

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