Wolfe Tones 0-15 Rathkenny 0-05 Despite being part of one of the poorest first half displays of football seen in a long time Wolfe Tones upped the tempo in the second half to run out ten point victors against Rathkenny in Navan and in the process ensured their progression to the knock-out stages of this year's Senior Football Championship. A combination of some poor shooting and some very poor passing meant that the Tones only registered three points in the first half. Stephen Sheppard opened the scoring on two minutes after a good move involving Niall McLoughlin and Cian Ward. Rathkenny levelled matters on 10 minutes but the Tones restored the lead 4 minutes later with an excellent point from Gordon Beggy and then on 17 minutes McLoughlin himself pointed after some good build-up play by Darren McGrath. Rathkenny reduced the margin to a point a minute later. This turned out to be the final score in the half, with some sloppy play by both sides contributing to a poor ten minutes of football up to half time. Rathkenny also had penalty awarded to them on 21 minutes, Sean Power pulled off a great save to still leave the Tones in the ascendency. Two points by Mark Coleman in the first couple of minutes gave the Tones a three point lead. McGrath slotted over a point also with point from an effort over along the sideline 30 yards out. Rathkenny replied with another point on 39 minutes. Cian Ward then scored his first point of the day when he converted a free after a jersey pull on Mark Coleman. Rathkenny then had another goal chance but that effort ended up blazing over the bar for a point. Ward then registered his second of the day with a quality point from right along the endline, from an extremely tight angle. Captain Alan Fox fisted a point over the bar on 50 minutes but Rathkenny replied straight away, turning out to be their last point of the day. Ward added two further points on the 55th and 57th minute before Beggy added another excellent point with two minutes remaining. By this stage it was target practise for the Tones, Fox, substitute Rossa McDonnell and Ward added further points to give the Tones the 10 point winning margin. Best on the day for the Tones were Harrington, Mark Coleman, Beggy and Niall McLoughlin Wolfe Tones - S Power, C Martin, C McLoughlin, D Coleman, B McGinn, E Harrington, S Sheppard (0-01), S Corrigan, M Coleman(0-02), D McGrath (0-01), Niall McLoughlin (0-01) , G Beggy (0-02), Alan Fox ( Capt) (0-02), Cian Ward (0-05), P Byrne. Subs - J McKeown for McGrath (50"), R Brady for D Coleman (57"), R McDonnell (0-01) for Byrne (57") Tweet

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