Ferbane booked their place in the semi-finals of the Offaly senior football championship with an impressive 1-18 to 1-11 win over Shamrocks in Tullamore yesterday.

Beaten finalists in the last three county finals, Ferbane returned to the last four of the Dowling Cup race after having made an electric start which saw them 0-8 to 0-0 up after nine minutes.

Darragh Bryant’s free would eventually get Shamrocks off the mark a minute later, but Ferbane grew their lead into double figures ahead of Cian Johnson smashing in their goal five minutes before half-time.

The scoreboard would read 1-14 to 0-4 come the break and, while Shamrocks battled back to within five points with the help of a Scott Delaney goal, their opponents would put a seal on the win with a couple of David Nally points down the home stretch.

The other game at O’Connor Park on Saturday saw Rhode making their goals count in a 3-13 to 0-16 victory against holders Tullamore.

With both teams in pursuit of a record 32nd SFC title for their club, it was Rhode that came out on top thanks to goals from David Keegan, Ross Keelaghan and Dylan Kavanagh.

Keegan’s strike was the difference between the sides at half-time (1-6 to 0-6) and Keelaghan raised his green flag six minutes into the restart ahead of Kavanagh netting late on to put a seal on Rhode’s semi-final berth, while Tullamore will have to go the quarter-final route if they are to complete a four-in-a-row.

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