NEWTOWN BLUES 2-10

NH MAIRTIN 1-8
 
Newtown Blues completed a memorable league season by claiming the Cardinal O’Donnell Cup with victory over Nh Mairtin at the Gaelic Grounds on Saturday evening.

The Drogheda men went into this game as strong favourites given their impressive form in Division 1 but many observers were also expecting the Mairtins to put it up to them.

However, hopes of the Monasterboice side causing an upset were severely hampered by the dismissal of Wayne Campbell midway through the opening half and from that moment the Blues were always on top.

Goals either side of the break from Conor Moore and Ross Nally had them in front and despite the best efforts of the Mairtins and Sam Mulroy in particular, the Monasterboice men were never able to bridge that gap.

In what proved to be an incident-packed first half it was the Blues who opened the scoring through John Kermode before Ross Nally doubled the lead.

However, any suggestion that the Drogheda men were going to run away with the game was quickly dispelled when Sam Mulroy put his side in front when the scored the opening goal from the penalty spot.

Eoghan Callaghan then found the target to put his side two clear but Ciaran Downey fired over two points in quick succession to level the game.

The Mairtins suffered a severe setback at the start of the second quarter when midfielder Wayne Campbell was dismissed.

It got even worse for the Monasterboice side when Conor Moore found the net for the Blues to make it 1-4 to 1-1 after 22 minutes and further points from Downey and Conor Branigan had the county champions ahead by 1-6 to 1-1 at the break.

The Mairtins made an encouraging start to the second half as two points from Mulroy saw them cut the gap to three points.However, the Blues moved quickly to regain control of the game as Nally produced a fine finish to see his team edge 2-6 to 1-3 ahead.

With Mulroy in fine form in attack, the Jocks managed to get the deficit back to four points on a number of occasions. However, the Blues were always in control and had the ability to pick off a score any time they appeared to be threatened.

Despite losing John Kermode to a black card and Fergal Donoghue to a red, the Blueseased home with the help of points from Robert Carr, Colm Judge and Andy
McDonnell.

NEWTOWN BLUES: Dean Martin; Paul Moore, Emmet Carolan, Fergal Donoghue; Kevin Carr, Cormac Reynolds, John Connolly; Andy McDonnell 0-1, John Kermode 0-1; Ciaran Downey 0-3, Hugh McGinn 0-1, Conor Moore 1-0; Conor Branigan 0-2, Ross Nally 1-1, Colm Judge 0-1. Subs: Jamie Kelly for K Carr, Robert Carr 0-1 for H McGinn, Alan Connor for C Reynolds, Ian Connor for J Kermode BC, Brian Kermode for C Downey.

NH MAIRTIN: Craig Lynch; Paul Berrill, Mick Fanning, Shane Campbell; Padraig McDonagh, Eoghan Callaghan 0-1, Thomas Sullivan; Wayne Campbell, Conor Morgan; Stephen Campbell 0-1, Graeme McQuillan, Conor Healy; Conor Whelan 0-1, Sam Mulroy 1-5, Brian McQuillan. Subs: Gavan Mooney, Fra McCullough, Mark McCullough, JP Rooney.

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