Cortown 6-17 St Pauls 3-05

Cortown guaranteed themselves a home Semi-Final with a facile victory over St Paul's on a chilly Tuesday evening in Cortown.

The form of the reserve team has been a welcome distraction from the first teams' struggles in recent weeks with three wins from four on the board following this latest win.

Credit to Paul's who travelled down the M3 with 13 soldiers and they opened the scoring inside the opening minute following a fine run from their wing back. Oisin Smith replied with the equalising score, a superb effort from out on the right after some patient build-up play from Luck Carberry.

The Clonee men retook the lead prior to Oisin Smith rattling off two in quick succession, one from play, the other from a '45.

The Faithful's Finest Kevin McGuinness cushioned over another, this time off the back of an enterprising run from Carberry. Cortown notched their opening goal of the night with Tommy Smith finishing emphatically after some brilliant work in the build-up from his younger brother Oisin and Jack Henry.

The precession continued with Elliot Reilly adding another off his right with Tommy Smith pouncing for his second green flag after a colossal defence lapse in the Pauls backline making it to 2-5 to 0-2.

Credit the visitors who registered an excellent goal of their own from their pacy wing forward. They quickly added a second goal from a knock-down and improvised finish to reduce the arrears to three in the blink of an eye.

Thats as good as it got for the away side with Tommy Smith ending the madness with a score to stop the Cortown rot along with the shot-hungry Conor Mulroe curling over another immediately after.

Henry was next on the goalscoring act, cooly slotting in the rebound off a ferocious Oisin Smith drive. It proved just the tonic for Henry as he fisted and kicked over a quickfire brace of points. Pauls closed out the first half scoring with a free to leave things 2-9 to 1-3 to the hosts.

Oisin Smith popped over prior to McGuinness shamelessly putting through his own net. Luckily there was only about 8 people at the game or else he could have been investigated for match-fixing, such was the bizarre nature of the own goal. Thankfully he was whipped off shortly after the incident.

Smith received from Reilly after a typically penetrative run and was the next to knock over. Reilly himself got a second, playing a neat one-two with Decky Coyne before firing over. Josh Keating also added his name to the scoresheet which was just rewards for his endeavours.

Another couple of goals arrived like two buses in succession for Martin McGovern's men with Henry getting his second and Tommy Smith completing his hatrick.

Henry continued his scoring-spree with another tasty left footed effort. Daragh O'Halloran swapped full back for full forward late in the day and he applied a delicate, deft finish to Stephen Fitzmaurice's dangerous ball to find the net to close out the scoring for the rampant team in yellow.

Cortown: Brian Casserly; Luke Carberry, Daragh O'Halloran (1-0); Josh Keating (0-1), John McGearty, Elliot Reilly (0-2); Kevin McGuinness (0-1), Decky Coyne; Ivor O'Halloran, Oisin Smith (0-5 one '45), Conor Mulroe (0-2); Tommy Smith (3-1), Jack Henry (2-5).

Subs: Jack Finnegan for Casserly, Stephen Fitzmaurice for Coyne, Skipper Coyne for O Smith, Micheal Reilly for T Smith.

Referee: Paul Mooney (Syddan)

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